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"Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paperclip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does?With clarity and humor, world-leading materials scientist Mark Miodownik answers all the questions you've ever had about your pens, spoons, and razor blades, while also introducing a whole world full of materials you've never even heard of: the diamond five times the size of Earth; concrete cloth that can be molded into any shape; and graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in existence--only a single atom thick.Stuff Matters tells enthralling stories that explain the science and history of materials. From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, Miodownik reveals the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives. As engaging as it is incisive, Stuff Matters will make you see the materials that surround you with new eyes"--… (more)
User reviews
Each chapter takes one aspect of he picture, for example the steel legs of the table, and then he explores the social and historical detail behind the material, from how it was mined, how they used it way back in history, as well as the technological advances that happen to make the material what it is today. Some of the material he writes about are not what you would expect, chocolate for example, but in this he explains some of the chemical processes that are used to change the bitter, fibrous beans to the seductive food that is chocolate. Paper too is an unusual choice, but when you think about it, this is a material that meant that people no longer needed to rely on oral traditions and could communicate with words and drawings and pictures.
There was never a plastic age, as we have had a stone age and iron age in the past, but I think that you could safely classify the post war years in that way. The first plastics were nitrocellulose, and were used to replace Ivory billiard balls, where as now we have a whole raft of plastic types to choose from, and they can be formed and moulded in many ways. Glass to is an amazing substance. As bill Bryson said in Notes from a Small Island: call me obtuse, but you could stand me on a beach till the end of time and never would it occur to me to try to make it into windows. And it is an amazing material. Naturally fragile, it can be made much tougher by tempering it or by adding thin layers of plastic it becomes bullet proof. Concrete, like glass was a material that the Romans had, whilst they didn’t have the fine control and understanding that the modern chemists and engineers have, they knew how to build with it, so much so that the Pantheon still is the largest unreinforced dome in the world and it is 2000 years old.
A morning coffee wouldn’t be the same with out a cup to drink it out of, and Miodownik looks at the history of china and porcelain. The finest porcelains were perfected by the Chinese who had almost transparent cups. After the Europeans stole the technology from them, we developed our own industry here using China clay mined in Cornwall. Other material include carbon, available in the ludicrously expensive form of diamond and the much cheaper, and more useful form of graphite.
Miodownik is well qualified to write this too, he is Professor of Materials at UCL, and his boundless enthusiasm for any and all materials comes across vividly in this book, just like you would see him on the telly in fact. Even though he is vastly experienced and knowledgeable, this is a popular science book, and really does not go into a huge amount of depth on each subject. The writing style is chatty, which will annoy some people no doubt, and I am not sure who convinced him that doing the chapter on plastics as a play would work, because it doesn’t. All that said, this is a good introduction to the things that we see, use, sit on, write with and drink from every day; 3.5 stars though.
Free review copy.
I must admit that I found the explanations of the make-up of the materials - especially the ways in which they are not at all the “solids” they appear to be - more interesting than the author’s musings on the way these items shaped society. As the author repeatedly demonstrates:
"The central idea behind materials science is that changes at … invisibly small scales impact a material’s behavior at the human scale. It is this process that our ancestors stumbled upon to make new materials such as bronze and steel, even though they did not have the microscopes to see what they were doing - an amazing achievement.”
He shares many fascinating observations about the property of “stuff”: for example, he describes silica aerogel, a material that is 99.8% air, which may be the least dense solid in the universe, but which is being successfully used by NASA to harvest space dust from comets. He explains why diamonds have such unique and remarkable properties, why paperclips bend, and why elastic stretches. And he tells how the use of glass for serving beer changed the whole nature of the brewing industry. Likewise, his observations on how more prosaic materials like paper, steel, ceramics, and concrete were developed and how they shaped the modern world are worth reading.
On the other hand, I wasn’t so much taken with his inclusion into the narrative mix of “psychophysics,” the study of how humans react sensually to materials.
Nevertheless, the author is engaging, and there are plenty of photos and diagrams throughout the book to elucidate that which he wants to convey.
Evaluation: This is a short, easy read with lots of interesting factoids.
(JAB)
The author kept my attention throughout the whole book. Well written, engaging presentation of materials science.
My biggest issue is that the author seemed perpetually unaware that his own personal observations aren't always reflective of larger cultural values. I get that when we talk about trends or preferences, we are by definition talking about vague sets of "most" people, there will always be some people who disagree, but he made a lot of things personal that didn't resonate at all with me. I think this was perhaps intended to blend a human touch with the science-based information in the book, but it mostly resulted in me having doubts about his judgement.
The layout is a clever as he is portrayed sitting on a roof top type patio with objects surrounding him
This is a fascinating tour through the world of materials science, and Miodownik is very effective at sharing his joy in it.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
(By the time I'd graduated, my writing was poorer for a lack of scientific metaphor and expanded horizons. And when I think of auditing college classes now, it's always the science courses that interests me.)
Well, this book is all about physical chemistry, complete with little pictures of things like carbon hexagons and great explanations of the substances discussed. Don't worry about the chapter on paper - didn't interest me much. But the other stuff, the steel chapter, the carbon chapter! Wow.
Stuff Matters
The narrator’s voice reminded me strongly of an actor, whose character I can clearly see but can’t place. Very, very British, balding, bow tie, condescending and misanthropic in a humorous way. This might have had something to do with my impressions of the book, too, though I’d have to read the print version to be sure. And someday, I likely will.
The composition and
Some of things I learned: the way graphite differs from diamond; life, as we know it, is made up of carbon and yet it is a trace element; e-ink is actually a print on 'paper'.
The chapter on glass was the best one IMHO where the author describes the concept of why glass is transparent in a very picturesque way. Something tells me I'll remember the 'athletics stadium and a pea in center with sparsely populated electron spectators' for a long time to come.
I agree with some other reviewers about the image - they could be of higher quality.