Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 12 May 2000:
Vol. 288. no. 5468, pp. 993 - 998
DOI: 10.1126/science.288.5468.993
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Pathways of Discovery

Designing a New Material World

Gregory B. Olson

In this month's essay, Gregory B. Olson of Northwestern University traces the routes of modern materials science and engineering, from the medieval alchemists' attempts to transmute base metals into gold to the modern materials engineer's use of complex processing to "transmute" the multilevel microstructure of materials to achieve the essential property of gold, namely, economic value. The emerging "systems approach," he contends, is leading researchers beyond an era of empirical discovery into a new "Age of Design," marked by the systematic invention of new, more capable materials.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Filling the gap between researchers studying different materials and different methods: a proposal for structured keywords.
Y. Kajikawa, K. Abe, and S. Noda (2006)
Journal of Information Science 32, 511-524
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)