Materials science is an interdisciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering.

It includes elements of applied physics and chemistry, as well as chemical, mechanical, civil and electrical engineering.

With significant media attention to nanoscience and nanotechnology in the recent years, materials science has been propelled to the forefront at many universities, sometimes controversially.

In materials science, rather than haphazardly looking for and discovering materials and exploiting their properties, one instead aims to understand materials fundamentally so that new materials with the desired properties can be created.

The basis of all materials science involves relating the desired properties and relative performance of a material in a certain application to the structure of the atoms and phases in that material through characterization..

For more information about the topic Materials science, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Metallurgy — Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and of materials engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements and ...  > read more

Mechanical engineering — Mechanical engineering is a very broad field of engineering that involves the application of physical principles for analysis, design, manufacturing, ...  > read more

Civil engineering — In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad field of engineering that deals with the planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed structures, ...  > read more

Hygroscopy — A hygroscopic substance is one that readily attracts water from its surroundings, through either absorption or adsorption. Examples include honey, ...  > read more

Related Stories

Scientists Show How Order And Disorder Unite To Enable Ultrasound, Sonar (November 4, 2002) — Chemists at the University of Pennsylvania have shown how atom-scale changes in certain materials can dramatically affect their ability to interchange mechanical and electrical signals. This finding, ...  > read more

Scientists Announce First 3-D Assembly Of Magnetic And Semiconducting Nanoparticles (June 26, 2003) — Scientists from Columbia University, IBM and the University of New Orleans today announced a new, three-dimensional designer material assembled from two different types of particles only billionths ...  > read more

Research Paves Way For New Composite Materials (July 20, 2006) — Graphene -- sheets of graphite just one atom thick -- has recently become one of the hottest materials around. Electrically conducting, it could provide the fabric for new kinds of microelectronic ...  > read more

Designing New Piezoelectric Materials For Extreme Temperatures (October 24, 2007) — Polymer-based piezoelectric materials are currently the object of great interest in the world of industry because they enable their use in new applications in sectors such as transport and ...  > read more

Engineers Discover Natural 'Workbench' For Nanoscale Construction (July 19, 2007) — Engineers have taken a step toward simplifying the creation of nanostructures by identifying the first inorganic material to phase separate with near-perfect order at the nanometer scale. The finding ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Molding Fingerprints