The Coming of Materials Scienceстатья из журнала
Аннотация: The Coming of Materials Science , Robert W. Cahn Pergamon, New York, 2001. $64.00 (568 pp.). isbn 0-08-042679-4 If one takes the broadest view, a significant fraction of modern-day physicists are materials scientists. Similarly, many chemists are also materials scientists. Materials science is at once very broad and highly interdisciplinary. Nonetheless, it constitutes a discipline unto itself, as witnessed by the departments of materials science and engineering (or similarly titled departments) in most research universities. In The Coming of Materials Science , Robert W. Cahn of the University of Cambridge, himself a noted materials scientist, offers a historic account of the development of the discipline.The historical perspective of the book makes it a lively and interesting read. Cahn does not present a detailed scientific account of any part of materials science. Instead he provides selective historical accounts. His book is full of fascinating anecdotes that describe some of the key scientific developments and offer a wonderful insight into the personalities of the scientists who played important roles in defining the discipline. This is probably not a book for young graduate students; instead it is most appropriate for more experienced scientists, those who want to gain perspective on the discipline’s past yet who have already developed a personal view of the background of materials science. Cahn is a metallurgist by training, and the focus of the history he describes is that of the evolution of metallurgy into materials science. Metallurgy clearly did play an essential role in defining the early evolution of the field, however the focus on metallurgy also represents a strong bias that perhaps seriously dates the book. For example, in a discussion of important institutions in materials science in the US, Cahn refers to the Institute for the Study of Metals at the University of Chicago, which played an influential role in the careers of many materials scientists—during its existence from 1946 to 1961. Cahn laments the evolution of the institute to its current incarnation, the James Franck Institute. In this, he fails to acknowledge the very influential and important—if more broadly defined—role it currently plays.Nonetheless, Cahn does provide a very interesting historical review of the evolution of materials science departments that occurred after World War II. His review includes an account of the materials research laboratories at various universities, which evolved into the modern materials science research and engineering centers and which continue to play an influential role in materials science in the US.The bias toward metallurgy also influences the author’s choice of topics and the perspective he adopts. There is an extensive and quite excellent history of the methods used to characterize materials. Cahn divides materials science into the study of two primary classes of materials: structural materials, which are primarily load bearing, and functional materials, which are important for their physical properties. He suggests that the emphasis of materials science is continually evolving from the study of structural materials to the study of functional ones. Nevertheless, in his metallurgical bias he maintains that it is the microstructure of materials that is most important in the field.In the discussion of functional materials, the book includes a very readable account of the many modern developments in the field. There is a full chapter, for example, on polymer science, one of the cornerstones of modern materials science. However, Cahn dismisses as irrelevant virtually all of fractal analysis, even excluding one piece of his own work. Such dismissal would seem to ignore the essential importance of fractals in describing the structure of polymers and gels and in the process of gelation, and it would relegate all of percolation theory to irrelevance.Cahn discusses the evolution of modern research, and points to the move away from “basic” research, which he prefers to call curiosity driven, toward more directed and applied research. An applied bias is certainly a fact of modern materials science research. However, good applied research can also be curiosity driven. Cahn also refers several times to the tension in materials science between those trained in different disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, or metallurgy. Such tensions did play an important role in the formation of the field. However, modern materials science is clearly interdisciplinary, with critical contributions from all these fields. Perhaps this is the true triumph of the field. The Coming of Materials Science provides an engaging account of the field’s evolution, and, for that, is well worth reading.© 2002 American Institute of Physics.
Год издания: 2002
Авторы: David A. Weitz
Издательство: AIP Publishing
Источник: Physics Today
Ключевые слова: Advanced Materials Characterization Techniques
Открытый доступ: bronze
Том: 55
Выпуск: 6
Страницы: 53–54