Stuff: The Things the World Is Made of

If comedian Rodney Dangerfield had chosen a career in science or technology, he might have selected materials science and engineering, a field that never seems to get the respect it deserves. As Amato writes, ""That books and buildings and the things in the world are supposed to be made of materials suited for their functions is so obvious that it almost goes without saying. But things that go without saying long enough are readily forgotten. That is why the materials that make up the world are most often not on people's minds."" Yet where would modern civilization be without intricately patterned chips and silicon, glass fibers of incredible transparency, a rich array of polymeric plastics and fibers and a profusion of alloys and ceramics able to function under the most demanding conditions? Our invented world of computers and communications, high-speed transportation and medical miracles would not exist without invented ""stuff."" Amato, in prose filled with a vision of past and future human accomplishments, takes readers on a tour from the earliest accidental discoveries of the Stone Age through the trial-and-error ages of bronze and steel to the threshold of the coming era of materials made by systematic design. In so doing, he brings careful attention to arguably the most important and certainly the most overlooked science of our times. (May)