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Before the modern era, materials were developed by artists and crafts people, artisans, alchemists and dabblers largely through trial and error. The technical sophistication that can be achieved this way is impressive, as a visit to the British Museum amply illustrates. Materials science is a fundametally different approach: it is the use and development of theory (physics, chemistry, biology) to understand and develop new materials. Although Materials Science is a fundamentally multidisciplinary approach, one aspect of the subject unites everyone, the link between structure and materials properties. Whether it is macro-structure, micro-structure, nano-structure or atomic-structure: size matters, with each different structural scale presenting its owns challenges. By understanding structure at the right scale and you can control the corresponding properties such as colour, strength, smoothness, magnetism etc... Material scientists all spend a lot of time trying to observe, control and manipulate structure. This approach is largely a 20th century innovation, and had yielded more new materials in 100 years than were developed in all previous history. There are hundreds of new materials produced every year. Some seem mundane, such as new aluminum alloys for the car industry, and some miraculous such as silicon chips, glass that cleans itself, polymers that self-heal, transparent concrete, and digital paper. The Materials Library Deep in the bowels of King's College London there is a space that is home to a collection of some of the most extrodinary materials on Earth. A chunk of Aerogel from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA that, at 99.8% air, is the worlds lightest solid; a tile of aluminium nitride that conducts the heat from one's hand efficiently enough to cut ice as if it were butter; a vial of a totally inert fluorocarbon liquid into which one can place any electronic equipment while continuing to operate it, without any ill effects. These materials are gathered together not only for scientific interest, but for their ability to fire the imagination and advance conceptualisation. Our hypothesis is that not only do technical details enhance aesthetic experience but that in generating physical encounters with matter, one provides an often forgotten way into this technical knowledge. The library is a physical archive of more than 800 materials and is growing every month. We specialise in new and advanced prototype materials collected from research labs all round the world, though nothing is to ordinary for our interest. The ideal of the library is to provide a intellectual and sensual intersection between the arts and sciences. We are not trying to create a comprehensive materials collection, instead we are trying to create a thinking space for the Materials Research Group. Read more about materials {here}in the column of our very own Mark Miodownik.
Our current Top Ten 1. Aerogel- lightest solid on earth |
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