“Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was.”
— Theodore Von Kármán

How does nature engineer soil?

The answer to this question opens up a new way of viewing the soil beneath our feet, as a class of adaptive matter: an engineered soft material whose structure, composition, and properties are evolved in response to external environmental stimuli. Studying emergent dynamics in these systems with the same precision and detail as biological cell can deepen our understanding of soil assembly, dynamics, and transport. Broadly, we can ask two questions:

• How does nature train and engineer specific types of soil, as a class of learning metamaterials?
• Can we extract design rules to develop geo-inspired sustainable, multifunctional soft composites?

Answer to these questions is explored using the materials geomimicry framework, which aims to synthetically reconstitute complex soil behavior to design novel materials and processes with advanced mechanical and transport properties. This convergent approach lies at the intersection of soft particulate rheo-tribology, colloid and surface science, materials chemistry, soil physics, geomaterials, porous-media transport, and living-matter dynamics. Applications span disciplines of chemical, mechanical, civil and environmental engineering, as well as materials science. They can be broadly classified into two areas: (a) geomimetic materials and process design (mechanical memory materials, soft matter–neural interfaces, earth-mimetic fluidic devices, and soft particuology for critical mineral extraction), and (b) soft earth engineering (climate-responsive soil, resilient building materials, precision agriculture, and space manufacturing-terraforming applications). Geomimicry offers a powerful framework to both discover new principles and engineer improved systems by observing the soil beneath our feet.