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The future of artificial skin that responds to touch and temperature

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode “The skin we’re in

Anna Maria Coclite is developing artificial skin, even more sensitive than our own. For burn victims and beyond, this “smart skin” has the potential to restore sensation to our body’s largest organ.

About Anna Maria Coclite

Anna Maria Coclite is a professor in the Department of Physics, University of Bari Aldo Moro, in Italy. Previously, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an associate professor at the Institute of Solid State Physics.

Her research interests focus on materials science, including thin film technologies and nanomaterials. In 2016, she received a European Research Council grant to study the sensors for artificial skins, or”smart skin.”

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Rachel Faulkner White and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].

Web Resources

Related TED Bio: Anna Maria Coclite

Related TED Talk: The world’s rarest diseases — and how they impact everyone

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Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.

Zomorodi is a co-founder of Stable Genius Productions and is the co-host and co-creator of ZigZag, the business podcast about being human. She also created, hosted, and was managing editor of the podcast Note to Self in partnership with WNYC Studios, which was named Best Tech Podcast of 2017 by The Academy of Podcasters.

Prior to her time at WNYC, Zomorodi reported and produced around the world for BBC News and Thomson Reuters, including a few years in Berlin.

She was named one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2018 and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Gracie for Best Radio Host in 2014 and 2018. Her book "Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Creative Self" (2017, St. Martin's Press) and her TED Talk are guides to surviving information overload and the "Attention Economy."

Zomorodi received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in English and fine arts. She is half-Persian and half-Swiss but was born in New York City, where she lives with her family.

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