Natural systems maintain steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions (i.e. they exhibit homeostasis) and keep control over their local environment by creating many mini-homeostatic modules. In comparison, synthetic materials are typically formed under equilibrium or kinetically trapped conditions and do not usually change their properties with time. Hence, synthetic systems are typically devoid of self-regulation, self-correction and self-monitoring. Because of their static nature, reconfiguration of synthetic systems is also difficult as they exhibit unidirectional responses to perturbation. Here, we describe a hydrogel-based homeostatic system with self-monitoring and self-regulating properties over a cyclic energy input. Unlike other dynamic gels under feedback loops, our system maintains its gel form throughout the energy cycle across a wide pH range. Control over the evolution of the mini-homeostatic modules induces a self-correcting property to our homeostatic hydrogel which can tune the network type and improve the mechanical properties of the system.

天然系统保持稳定的内部，物理和化学条件（即，表现出体内平衡），并通过创建许多微型稳态模块来保持对本地环境的控制。相比之下，合成材料通常是在平衡或动力学陷阱条件下形成的，通常不会随时间改变其性能。因此，合成系统通常缺乏自我调节，自我校正和自我监控。由于它们的静态特性，合成系统的重新配置也很困难，因为它们表现出对扰动的单向响应。在这里，我们描述了一种基于水凝胶的稳态系统，该系统在循环能量输入中具有自我监控和自我调节的特性。与其他在反馈回路下的动态凝胶不同，我们的系统可在整个pH范围内的整个能量循环中保持其凝胶形式。控制微型稳态模块的演化会为我们的稳态水凝胶引入自校正特性，从而可以调整网络类型并改善系统的机械性能。