Material Matters
- PDF / 4,115,238 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 576 x 777.6 pts Page_size
- 93 Downloads / 242 Views
The Federal View of Materials Science 1991 MRS H I Meeting Plenary Address D. Allan Bromley
It was over 200 years ago that Benjamin Franklin wrote, "The greatest inventions are those inquiries that intend to increase the power of man over matter." That comment has never been more true than it is today. The work of those of you here this evening in materials science and technology, in my opinion, is ushering us into a totally new age of materials, where our ability to control the structure and properties of matter is inevitably going to produce benefits not only to the citizens of this nation but to all peoples worldwide. It's an exciting time. It's exciting enough to be on the sidelines, as I am, and I'm sure it must be much more exciting to be actually involved in this tremendous adventure and in an activity that has the most profound consequences for all of us, our children, and our grandchildren. Today I think it's fair to say that materials science has become as fundamental to technology development as mathematics is to the development of the natural sciences. Materials science and engineering has a tremendous impact on an enormous range of scientific activities, from almost every branch of applied technology through medicine through some of the most fundamental aspects of physics, cosmology, and other basic sciences. All the recent reports, and there have been many, on critical, generic, or emerging technologies—every one of them—has identified materials science and engineering as one of our most important activities in terms of its potential impact on and contributions to society. It is of particular pleasure for me to be here to discuss such a dynamic area of modern science. I could, of course, run through enormous numbers of examples of areas that have recently turned out to be of great importance. But let me touch on only a few. Recent research that I have seen within the past six months has shown what I believe
to be the ultimate in electronic devices: switches that operate through the action of a single atom, and transistors that activate through the motion of a single electron. High-temperature superconductivity and buckminsterfullerenes, both totally unanticipated just a few years ago, have the po-
H. AJl.m Rromli-y, Assistant in the 1'residunl fur Scu'iKr- and Teihnolony and Dirtvt.ir ill iho Ottii-e of Srivnce and Tkhnulopy Kiiuy in thu hwutivp Office of ill!11 "r»»iidoiK, i« A ni«h'd nuclear physicist iv'lii' h.is idiripd nut pioneering studi o i HI lx>ih cho sliuriun- .mil dynamics i't iiuilci. He is on IIMVO from hi>< former pi •sitii >n .is I lonry Jvref Tl f'n "fi-ssi ir of Physks .it Xate Uniwrsity. ivhtw he was toundcr ond diivrtor of the AAV Wright Nm k w Sinii-fuiv Laboratory. Siiuc bcpiiRUh! lit? present .ippointnii-nl, fir>Mnk.'\ h,i
Data Loading...
