Norton, M. Grant (Author)
Springer International Publishing
Physical Details: 313
Language: English
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.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Finn Arne Jørgensen;
(2019)
Recycling
(/isis/citation/CBB762794057/)
Book
Clarke, Christina F.;
(2013)
The Manufacture of Minoan Metal Vessels: Theory and Practice
(/isis/citation/CBB001422064/)
Book
Elaine Treharne;
Claude Willan;
(2019)
Text Technologies: A History
(/isis/citation/CBB318023201/)
Book
Thomas J. Misa;
(2022)
Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB564523092/)
Book
Misa, Thomas J.;
(2004)
Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB000520071/)
Book
Tim Anstey;
(2024)
Things That Move: A Hinterland in Architectural History
(/isis/citation/CBB014037081/)
Book
Simona Todaro;
(2020)
Prima del tornio. Un approccio sperimentale allo studio delle tecniche di foggiatura nel Mediterraneo preistorico
(/isis/citation/CBB433010484/)
Book
Lavan, Luke;
Zanini, Enrico;
Sarantis, Alexander Constantine;
(2007)
Technology in Transition: A.D. 300--650
(/isis/citation/CBB000830818/)
Article
Wiederkehr, Karl Heinrich;
(2010)
Über Vorstellungen von der elektrischen Leitung, die Entwicklung einer Elektronentheorie der Metalle und der Beginn einer Festkörperphysik
(/isis/citation/CBB001021508/)
Article
Luxbacher, Günther;
(2011)
“Für bestimmte Anwendungsgebiete best geeignete Werkstoffe…finden”:Zur Praxis der Forschung an Ersatzstoffen für Metalle in den deutschen Autarkie-Phasen des 20. Jahrhunderts
(/isis/citation/CBB001033936/)
Article
Hanna Vikström;
(July 2020)
Producing Electric Light: How Resource Scarcity Affected Light Bulbs, 1880–1914
(/isis/citation/CBB276762071/)
Book
Aurélie Cuénod;
Mattingly, David J.;
Chloë N Duckworth;
(2020)
Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB970668140/)
Article
Patricia Hart Mangan;
(2023)
Miss Lyon’s Choice: Gender and Ceramic Material Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB476286589/)
Article
Umberto Veronesi;
Marcos Martinón-Torres;
(2022)
The Old Ashmolean Museum and Oxford’s Seventeenth-Century Chymical Community: A Material Culture Approach To Laboratory Experiments
(/isis/citation/CBB006517357/)
Article
Smith, Kate;
(2012)
Sensing Design and Workmanship: The Haptic Skills of Shoppers in Eighteenth-Century London
(/isis/citation/CBB001201116/)
Article
Kijan Espahangizi;
(2022)
Science in Glass: Material Pathologies in Laboratory Research, Glassware Standardization, and the (Un)Natural History of a Modern Material, 1900s–1930s
(/isis/citation/CBB711343544/)
Article
Marianna Szczygielska;
(2023)
Reading Teeth: Ivory as an Artifact of Classed Whiteness
(/isis/citation/CBB328721716/)
Article
Christine von Oertzen;
(2023)
Paper Knowledge and Statistical Precision
(/isis/citation/CBB422462024/)
Article
Sebastian Felten;
(2023)
Money Supplies
(/isis/citation/CBB471911380/)
Thesis
Amy S. Robbins;
(2019)
Experimental Expertise: Glass at the Intersection of Art and Science
(/isis/citation/CBB554413678/)
Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
Journal of Design History
NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin
Sudhoffs Archiv: Zeitschrift fuer Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Be the first to comment!