1 Gold, sand and string; 2 Close inspection; 3 Materials properties: Soft, shiny and blue; 4 Making stuff; 5 Making Things; 6 Sustainability: Such quantities of sand; Further reading; Index

The study of materials is a major field of research that supports and drives innovation in technology. Using modern scientific techniques, materials scientists and engineers explore and manipulate materials, and create new ones with remarkable strength and extraordinary optical and electrical properties. In this Very Short Introduction, Christopher Hall looks at a wide range of materials, from steel, wood, and rubber, to gold, silicon, and graphene, describing how materials are used, how their properties arise from their internal structure, and how useful and novel things are made from them. He concludes by looking at how the global scale of materials consumption now threatens the goal of sustainability.
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Christopher Hall is Professor Emeritus and Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where he was previously Professor of Materials. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.