Ten Materials That Shaped Our World

Ten Materials That Shaped Our World
Author: M. Grant Norton
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-06-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030752135

This book examines ten materials—flint, clay, iron, gold, glass, cement, rubber, polyethylene, aluminum, and silicon—explaining how they formed, how we discovered them, why they have the properties they do, and how they have transformed our lives. Since the dawn of the Stone Age, we have shaped materials to meet our needs and, in turn, those materials have shaped us. The fracturing of flint created sharp, curved surfaces that gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge. Molding clay and then baking it in the sun produced a means of recording the written word and exemplified human artistic imagination. As our ability to control heat improved, earthenware became stoneware and eventually porcelain, the most prized ceramic of all. Iron cast at high temperatures formed the components needed for steam engines, locomotives, and power looms—the tools of the Industrial Revolution. Gold has captivated humans for thousands of years and has recently found important uses in biology, medicine, and nanotechnology. Glass shaped into early and imperfect lenses not only revealed the microscopic world of cells and crystals, but also allowed us to discover stars and planets beyond those visible with the naked eye. Silicon revolutionized the computer, propelling us into the Information Age and with it our interconnected social networks, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. Written by a materials scientist, this book explores not just why, but also how certain materials came to be so fundamental to human society. This enlightening study captivates anyone interested in learning more about the history of humankind, our ingenuity, and the materials that have shaped our world.

Stuff Matters

Stuff Matters
Author: Mark Miodownik
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2014
Genre: History
ISBN: 0544236041

An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, from concrete and steel to denim and chocolate, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science.

Material World

Material World
Author: Ed Conway
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2023-11-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0593534344

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. • Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grids, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and cars: though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information—what Ed Conway calls “the ethereal world”—our twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material. In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood to metal. And in Material World, Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates. Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new perspective: the ground up.

Fifty Materials That Make the World

Fifty Materials That Make the World
Author: Ian Baker
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2018-06-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319787667

This book introduces materials and how advances in materials result in advances in technology and our daily lives. Each chapter covers a particular material, how the material was discovered or invented, when it was first used, how this material has impacted the world, what makes the material important, how it is used today, and future applications. The list of materials covered in this book includes stone, wood, natural fibers, metals, clay, lead, iron, steel, silicon, glass, rubber, composites, polyethylene, rare earth magnet, and alloys.

Making the Modern World

Making the Modern World
Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2013-12-16
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1119942535

How much further should the affluent world push its material consumption? Does relative dematerialization lead to absolute decline in demand for materials? These and many other questions are discussed and answered in Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Over the course of time, the modern world has become dependent on unprecedented flows of materials. Now even the most efficient production processes and the highest practical rates of recycling may not be enough to result in dematerialization rates that would be high enough to negate the rising demand for materials generated by continuing population growth and rising standards of living. This book explores the costs of this dependence and the potential for substantial dematerialization of modern economies. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization considers the principal materials used throughout history, from wood and stone, through to metals, alloys, plastics and silicon, describing their extraction and production as well as their dominant applications. The evolving productivities of material extraction, processing, synthesis, finishing and distribution, and the energy costs and environmental impact of rising material consumption are examined in detail. The book concludes with an outlook for the future, discussing the prospects for dematerialization and potential constrains on materials. This interdisciplinary text provides useful perspectives for readers with backgrounds including resource economics, environmental studies, energy analysis, mineral geology, industrial organization, manufacturing and material science.

Stuff

Stuff
Author: Ivan Amato
Publisher:
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1997-04-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Much more than a history of the material sciences, Stuff brims with interviews with cutting-edge experts in the field, many of whom are building new materials literally atom by atom, and describes such astounding achievements as artificial diamonds created from peanut butter and how nanotechnologists are building new-age, state-of-the-art machines no thicker than a few hundred atoms.

Handbook of Research on Green, Circular, and Digital Economies as Tools for Recovery and Sustainability

Handbook of Research on Green, Circular, and Digital Economies as Tools for Recovery and Sustainability
Author: Ordóñez de Pablos, Patricia
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2022-03-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1799896668

Global society has simultaneously faced several unprecedented health, social, and economic challenges. Countries need to recover economic growth quickly, boost productivity and job creation, invest in smart healthcare systems and services, and work toward a climate-neutral and circular economy. The Handbook of Research on Green, Circular, and Digital Economies as Tools for Recovery and Sustainability explores new and emerging frameworks, tools, and strategies to support companies and economies toward a green and digital transformation. It analyzes the role of disruptive technologies, innovative green technologies, and emerging practices all over the world. Covering topics such as corporate sustainability, digital banking, and national innovation systems, this major reference work is an essential resource for educational administration, politicians, government officials, global business leaders, managing directors, libraries, researchers, academicians, educators, and students.

The Opera House

The Opera House
Author: Peter FitzSimons
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2022-03-30
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0733641342

'The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was reflected off this building.' - Louis Kahn, US architect If only these walls and this land could talk ... The Sydney Opera House is a breathtaking building, recognised around the world as a symbol of modern Australia. Along with the Taj Mahal and other World Heritage sites, it is celebrated for its architectural grandeur and the daring and innovation of its design. It showcases the incomparable talents involved in its conception, construction and performance history. But this stunning house on Bennelong Point also holds many secrets and scandals. In his gripping biography, Peter FitzSimons marvels at how this magnificent building came to be, details its enthralling history and reveals the dramatic stories and hidden secrets about the people whose lives have been affected, both negatively and positively, by its presence. He shares how a conservative 1950s state government had the incredible vision and courage to embark on this nation-defining structure; how an architect from Denmark and construction workers from Australia and abroad invented new techniques to bring it to completion; how ambition, betrayal, professional rivalry, sexual intrigue, murder, bullying and breakdowns are woven into its creation; and how it is now acknowledged as one of the wonders and masterpieces of human ingenuity. In The Opera House, Peter FitzSimons captures the extraordinary stories around this building that are as mesmerising as the light catching on its white sails.

Translucence

Translucence
Author: Carol Gilbertson
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 246
Release:
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781451404869

An ongoing seminar, led by Ronald Thiemann of Harvard Divinity School, took the arts as the point of departure for consideration of the role of religion in public life, particularly the ways in which Lutheran intellectuals and academics might participate. The emergence of religious meaning in the arts (especially music and literature) and the nature of the spirituality that results are considered by the seminar participants: Curt Thompson, Gregg Muilenburg, Bruce Heggen, Carol Gilbertson, Kathryn P. Duffy, Karen Black, Kathryn Ananda-Owens, James Hanson.

10 Women Who Changed Science and the World

10 Women Who Changed Science and the World
Author: Catherine Whitlock
Publisher: Diversion Publishing Corp.
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1635766095

Spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this fascinating history explores the lives and achievements of great women in science across the globe. Ten Women Who Changed Science and the World tells the stories of trailblazing women who made a historic impact on physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. Included in this volume are famous figures, such as two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, as well as individuals whose names will be new to many, though their breakthroughs were no less remarkable. These women overcame significant obstacles, discrimination, and personal tragedies in their pursuit of scientific advancement. They persevered in their research, whether creating life-saving drugs or expanding our knowledge of the cosmos. By daring to ask ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’, each of these women made a positive impact on the world we live in today. In this book, you will learn about: Astronomy Henrietta Leavitt (United States, 1868–1921) discovered the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheid variable stars, which enabled us to measure the size of our galaxy and the universe. Physics Lise Meitner (Austria, 1878–1968) fled Nazi Germany in 1938, taking with her the experimental results which showed that she and Otto Hahn had split the nucleus and discovered nuclear fission. Chien-Shiung Wu (United States, 1912–1997) demonstrated that the widely accepted ‘law of parity’, which stated that left-spinning and right-spinning subatomic particles would behave identically, was wrong. Chemistry Marie Curie (France, 1867–1934) became the only person in history to have won Nobel prizes in two different fields of science. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (United Kingdom, 1910–1994) won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 and pioneered the X-ray study of large molecules of biochemical importance. Medicine Virginia Apgar (United States, 1909–1974) invented the Apgar score, used to quickly assess the health of newborn babies. Gertrude Elion (United States, 1918–1999) won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for her advances in drug development. Biology Rita Levi-Montalcini (Italy, 1909–2012) won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for her co-discovery in 1954 of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF). Elsie Widdowson (United Kingdom, 1906–2000) pioneered the science of nutrition and helped devise the World War II food-rationing program. Rachel Carson (United States, 1907–1964) forged the environmental movement, most famously with her influential book Silent Spring.