STUFF MATTERS Hold Together Our Physical World
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Watch author photo color. Use CMYK file provided for target. Color substitutions for C,M,Y channels. PMS 801 C for C / PMS 806 C for M / PMS 803 C for Y Process Black / PMS 185 C Red — Scuff Free Matte Lamination $26.00 Higher in Canada MARK MIODOWNIK An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with “I stayed up all night reading this book. Miodownik writes with such knowledge, such enthusiasm, such a palpable love for his subject.” surprising stories and fascinating science — OLIVER SACKS, author of Hallucinations Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any “Concrete, chocolate, paper, porcelain; this is a fascinating and informative MARK MIODOWNIK material look and behave the way it does? These are account of the ‘stuff’ of our everyday lives.” the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is con- — PENNY LE COUTEUR, coauthor of Napoleon’s Buttons: stantly asking himself. A globally renowned materials How 17 Molecules Changed History scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring ob- jects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that “It is a rare thing for a true scientist to be able to explain how things work so STUFF MATTERS hold together our physical world. clearly to the layperson — and even rarer to do so in such an entertaining fashion. MATTERS STUFF In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly exam- No one who reads this book will look at the world quite the same again.” ines the materials he encounters in a typical morn- — KATE ASCHER, author of The Works, ing, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his The Heights, and The Way to Go pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the “[A] wonderful account of the materials that have made the modern world . most astounding histories and marvelous scientific Mark Miodownik is a professor of materials Miodownik writes well enough to make even concrete sparkle.” breakthroughs in the material world, including: and society at University College London. He is the — Financial Times director of the Institute of Making, which is home – the imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from to a materials library containing some of the most execution by creating the first European porcelain wondrous matter on earth. He lives in London. “A deftly written, immensely enjoyable little book.” – the hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five — Observer (UK) EXPLORING the MARVELOUS MATERIALS times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond – graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in that SHAPE OUR MAN-MADE WORLD “[Miodownik] makes even the most everyday seem thrilling.” existence — only a single atom thick — which could — Sunday Times (UK) be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch. From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elas- tic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with Jacket design and illustration by Patrick Barry Author photograph © Ruby Wright materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of $26.00 Higher in Canada engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will ISBN 978-0-544-23604-2 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt make you see stuff in a whole new way. www.hmhco.com © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Harcourt Mifflin © Houghton 1564715 0514 Miodownik_STUFF_MATTERS_mech_COLOR_SUB.indd 1 3/17/14 1:08 PM Watch author photo color. Use CMYK file provided for target. Color substitutions for C,M,Y channels. PMS 801 C for C / PMS 806 C for M / PMS 803 C for Y Process Black / PMS 185 C Red — Scuff Free Matte Lamination $26.00 Higher in Canada MARK MIODOWNIK An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with “I stayed up all night reading this book. Miodownik writes with such knowledge, such enthusiasm, such a palpable love for his subject.” surprising stories and fascinating science — OLIVER SACKS, author of Hallucinations Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any “Concrete, chocolate, paper, porcelain; this is a fascinating and informative MARK MIODOWNIK material look and behave the way it does? These are account of the ‘stuff’ of our everyday lives.” the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is con- — PENNY LE COUTEUR, coauthor of Napoleon’s Buttons: stantly asking himself. A globally renowned materials How 17 Molecules Changed History scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring ob- jects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that “It is a rare thing for a true scientist to be able to explain how things work so STUFF MATTERS hold together our physical world. clearly to the layperson — and even rarer to do so in such an entertaining fashion. MATTERS STUFF In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly exam- No one who reads this book will look at the world quite the same again.” ines the materials he encounters in a typical morn- — KATE ASCHER, author of The Works, ing, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his The Heights, and The Way to Go pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the “[A] wonderful account of the materials that have made the modern world . most astounding histories and marvelous scientific Mark Miodownik is a professor of materials Miodownik writes well enough to make even concrete sparkle.” breakthroughs in the material world, including: and society at University College London. He is the — Financial Times director of the Institute of Making, which is home – the imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from to a materials library containing some of the most execution by creating the first European porcelain wondrous matter on earth. He lives in London. “A deftly written, immensely enjoyable little book.” – the hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five — Observer (UK) EXPLORING the MARVELOUS MATERIALS times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond – graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in that SHAPE OUR MAN-MADE WORLD “[Miodownik] makes even the most everyday seem thrilling.” existence — only a single atom thick — which could — Sunday Times (UK) be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch. From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elas- tic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with Jacket design and illustration by Patrick Barry Author photograph © Ruby Wright materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of $26.00 Higher in Canada engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will ISBN 978-0-544-23604-2 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt make you see stuff in a whole new way. www.hmhco.com © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Harcourt Mifflin © Houghton 1564715 0514 Miodownik_STUFF_MATTERS_mech_COLOR_SUB.indd 1 3/17/14 1:08 PM STUFF MATTER S Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 1 3/17/14 2:28 PM Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 2 3/17/14 2:28 PM STUFF MATTERS EXPLORING the MARVELOUS MATERIALS that SHAPE OUR MAN-MADE WORLD MARK MIODOWNIK H OUGHTON MIFFLIN H AR COURT BO S TON N E W YORK 2 0 1 4 Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 3 3/17/14 2:28 PM First U.S. edition 2014 Copyright © 2013 by Mark Miodownik All rights reserved For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003. First published in the United Kingdom by Penguin Books Ltd 2013 www.hmhco.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miodownik, Mark, author. Stuff matters : exploring the marvelous materials that shape our man-made world / Mark Miodownik. — First U.S. edition. pages cm Reprint of: London : Penguin, 2013. ISBN 978-0-544-23604-2 (hardback) 1. Materials science — Popular works. I. Title. TA403.2.M56 2014 620.1'1 — dc23 2013047575 Book design by Patrick Barry Printed in the United States of America DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 4 3/17/14 2:28 PM For Ruby, Lazlo, and Ida Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 5 3/17/14 2:28 PM Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 6 3/17/14 2:28 PM CONTENTS Introduction ix 1 Indomitable 1 2 Trusted 21 3 Fundamental 51 4 Delicious 73 5 Marvelous 91 6 Imaginative 111 7 Invisible 139 8 Unbreakable 159 9 Refined 179 10 Immortal 195 11 Synthesis 215 Acknowledgments 229 Photo Credits 232 Further Reading 233 Index 234 Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 7 3/17/14 2:28 PM Miodownik_STUFF MATTERS_F.indd 8 3/17/14 2:28 PM INTRODU C T I ON A s I s t o o d o n a train bleeding from what would later be clas- sified as a thirteen-centimeter stab wound, I wondered what to do. It was May 1985, and I had just jumped on to a London Tube train as the door closed, shutting out my attacker, but not before he had slashed my back. The wound stung like a very bad paper cut, and I had no idea how serious it was, but being a schoolboy at the time, embarrassment overcame any sort of common sense. So instead of getting help, I decided the best thing would be to sit down and go home, and so, bizarrely, that is what I did. To distract myself from the pain, and the uneasy feeling of blood trickling down my back, I tried to work out what had just happened.