Why Materials Matter

Download or read book Why Materials Matter written by Seetal Solanki and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This visually stunning investigation of natural and man-made materials will change the way you look at the world around you, while offering hope for the future of our planet. What does it mean to live in a material world, and how do materials of the past and present hold the keys to our future? This book tackles these questions by focusing on various issues that human beings face and by discussing potential materials-related solutions. Through the lens of intriguing projects by designers, artists, makers, and scientists, it presents a colorful panoply of ideas, technologies, and creative efforts that focus on the earth's most basic elements, while also showing how these elements can be transformed into entirely new materials. It explores, for example, how ancient practices such as dyeing fabric and making glue may hold the secret to renewable and earth-friendly consumer products, as well as how recycling plastics can tackle food waste, and how a type of light metal being developed may one day make air travel less fuel-reliant. This book also investigates the potential of the digital experience, suggesting how this most ephemeral type of matter can be used to improve our world. Eye-catching and provocative, Why Materials Matter serves as both a stimulating catalog of possibilities and a timely manifesto on how to consume, manufacture, and design for a better future.

Download or read book Materials Matter written by Ken Geiser and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-05-25 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The products we purchase and use are assembled from a wide range of naturally occurring and manufactured materials. But too often we create hazards for the ecosystem and human health as we mine, process, distribute, use, and dispose of these materials. Until recently, most research has focused on the waste end of material cycles. This book argues that the safest and least costly point at which to avoid environmental damage is when materials are first designed and selected for use in industrial production. Materials Matter presents convincing evidence that we can use fewer materials and eliminate the use of many toxic chemicals by focusing directly on material (chemical) use when products are designed. It also shows how manufacturers can save money by increasing the effectiveness of material use and reducing the use of toxic chemicals. It advocates new directions for the material sciences and government policies on materials. And it argues that manufacturers, suppliers, and customers need to set more socially responsible policies for products and services to achieve higher environmental and health goals.

Download or read book How Materials Matter written by Graeme Were and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does design and innovation shape people’s lives in the Pacific? Focusing on plant materials from the region, How Materials Matter reveals ways in which a variety of people – from craftswomen and scientists to architects and politicians – work with materials to transform worlds. Recognizing the fragile and ephemeral nature of plant fibres, this work delves into how the biophysical properties of certain leaves and their aesthetic appearance are utilized to communicate information and manage different forms of relations. It breaks new ground by situating plant materials at the centre of innovation in a region.

Download or read book Radical Matter written by Kate Franklin and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A road map for product design professionals and students to ten "Big Ideas" in material innovation

Download or read book Materials, Matter & Particles written by M. M. Woolfson and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2010 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history of ideas about the nature of matter and also the way that mankind has used material resources that the world offers. Starting with the ideas of ancient civilizations that air, earth, fire and water were the basic ingredients of all matter, it traces the development of the science of chemistry beginning within the ranks of the alchemists. First, the idea of elements grew and then the atomic nature of matter was verified. Physicists had entered the scene, showing the nature of atoms in terms of fundamental particles and then introducing the concept of wave-particle duality that altered the basic concepts of what matter was. Finally the physicists discovered a panoply of fundamental particles, some observed within atom-smashing machines and the existence of others merely postulated. In parallel with the above there is a description of various kinds of matter as it affects everyday life OCo including the nature of matter associated with life itself. The way that early man used the materials directly given by nature, such as stone, wood and animal skins, is followed by the use of materials requiring some process to be employed OCo e.g. metals which include bronze and also concrete. Some important modern materials are discussed, such as synthetic fibres and plastics and semiconductors, and potentially important future products from new developments in nanotechnology. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Introduction (35 KB). Contents: The Elements of Nature; Early Ideas of the Nature of Matter; The Quest for Gold and Eternal Life; The Beginning of Chemistry; Modern Chemistry is Born; Nineteenth Century Chemistry; Atoms Have Structure; Radioactivity and the Plum-Pudding Model; Some Early 20th Century Physics; What is a Nucleus Made of?; Electrons in Atoms; The New Mechanics; Electrons and Chemistry; Electron Spin and the Exclusion Principle; Isotopes; Radioactivity and More Particles; Making Atoms, Explosions and Power; Observing Matter on a Small Scale; Living Matter; Life at the Atomic Level; Materials from Ancient Times; Modern Materials; The Fantastic World of Particles; How Matter Began; Making Heavier Elements. Readership: Accessible to a wide audience including the educated layperson and undergraduates taking science as a subsidiary subject.

Download or read book Touch It! written by Adrienne Mason and published by Kids Can Press Ltd. This book was released on 2005-08 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book in the Primary Physical Science series is full of surprising facts and hands-on activities to help kids explore the world of materials.

Download or read book Vibrant Matter written by Jane Bennett and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-04 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Vibrant Matter the political theorist Jane Bennett, renowned for her work on nature, ethics, and affect, shifts her focus from the human experience of things to things themselves. Bennett argues that political theory needs to do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in events. Toward that end, she theorizes a “vital materiality” that runs through and across bodies, both human and nonhuman. Bennett explores how political analyses of public events might change were we to acknowledge that agency always emerges as the effect of ad hoc configurations of human and nonhuman forces. She suggests that recognizing that agency is distributed this way, and is not solely the province of humans, might spur the cultivation of a more responsible, ecologically sound politics: a politics less devoted to blaming and condemning individuals than to discerning the web of forces affecting situations and events. Bennett examines the political and theoretical implications of vital materialism through extended discussions of commonplace things and physical phenomena including stem cells, fish oils, electricity, metal, and trash. She reflects on the vital power of material formations such as landfills, which generate lively streams of chemicals, and omega-3 fatty acids, which can transform brain chemistry and mood. Along the way, she engages with the concepts and claims of Spinoza, Nietzsche, Thoreau, Darwin, Adorno, and Deleuze, disclosing a long history of thinking about vibrant matter in Western philosophy, including attempts by Kant, Bergson, and the embryologist Hans Driesch to name the “vital force” inherent in material forms. Bennett concludes by sketching the contours of a “green materialist” ecophilosophy.