Materials science has played an important role from the beginning of human history to the present, enabling the transition to the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Today, materials science is the foundation of many engineering disciplines, and in the future, it will drive innovations in nanotechnology, green materials, healthcare, telecommunications, and more. These advances will enrich human life and contribute to building a more sustainable society.
From the past to the future. The title of this article is so clichéd that you’ve probably seen it at least once in your life. If you’re having trouble coming up with a clear answer, consider the time span from the birth of our species to the present day. If you were asked to name the most important engineering achievements in human history, what would people living today say? Of course, the answer is not set in stone. Despite the lack of an answer, I can say with certainty that the engineering that has had the most significant impact on human history is material engineering. This is not necessarily because I specialize in materials engineering. Materials have played a very important role historically and socially.
As students of humanities and social sciences are well aware, periods of human history are generally divided into three periods based on certain criteria. That criterion is material. Stone, bronze, and iron (and still today). This may raise some questions. Why is it that modern humans are so intelligent, know and have developed so many materials, and yet we are still stuck with iron, compared to the transition from stone to bronze or bronze to iron? In comparison, the transition from stone to bronze is estimated to be around the 20th century BC, and the transition from bronze to iron is around the 4th-5th century BC. In other words, we have been using metal materials for only a few thousand years, but we have been using stone for tens of thousands of years. We discovered iron, a material that has become extremely valuable. Today, metals such as copper and aluminum are superior to iron in terms of electrical conductivity, density, and corrosion resistance, but they have yet to fully replace it in terms of material properties such as strength and toughness, as well as economics.
In the previous section, we’ve seen how materials have had such a profound impact on our past and how they have evolved. It is an undeniable historical fact that the development of materials has led to many advances in human knowledge. The history of mankind has been enriched by the development of materials in the past, and this will not change in the future. The closer we get to modern times, the faster the pace of knowledge advances, and the 20th century in particular has seen a vast amount of knowledge accumulated and organized, not only in physics, but in science in general. As scientific advancements continued, so did technological advancements, especially in the field of materials, which saw many discoveries and inventions. For example, when humans first invented airplanes and took to the skies, it was the lightness and strength of the materials used to make them possible. These advances soon revolutionized the way we live and the structure of society.
Today, there are many different branches of engineering. Mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, chemical engineering, biological engineering, shipbuilding, aeronautical engineering, architectural engineering, environmental engineering, and so on, all of which are too important to list and describe. And materials science can be seen as the foundation of all these fields. Mechanical, electrical, chemical, biomaterials, architectural, shipbuilding, and aeronautical engineering all require materials, and materials play a very important role as the basis of their engineering. The discipline of materials engineering is divided into three main branches: metallurgy, ceramics, and fiber polymers, which is also a way to categorize the materials that exist in the world.
Let’s take a look at the materials that have been discovered so far. Some are simple materials, while others include optical fibers, semiconductors, alloys including duralumin, liquid crystal displays, and biomaterials used as artificial organs. And then there are the ones you’ve probably heard of, such as amoled, which is used in recently commercialized cell phones, and graphene, a material that is important not only in physics but also in materials science and engineering, which was studied by last year’s Nobel Prize winners in physics. The latter two are often referred to as “emerging” because they are relatively new compared to other materials, even if they have been discovered and studied for some time. For this reason, other universities often use the term “new-material engineering” to refer to majors that study similar subjects. In addition, non-engineering majors often don’t even know what “materials” means in the name of materials engineering. On the other hand, when explained in English, the meaning of material is narrower than material, so it is more easily accepted than material engineering. In fact, the word material is much broader than new materials and includes not only engineering and technology, but also basic science, so I think that materials science and engineering is the right position to study and research in this field.
I mentioned above that there are three main types of materials. They are basically categorized into metals, ceramics, and polymers, all of which have different material properties and are used in different ways. From the past to the present, many materials discovered or invented by mankind have been all around us, enriching and enriching our lives, enabling us to learn more and make more things possible. For example, if we wanted to observe more microscopic things, we would need to make tools to observe them, and in order to make those tools, we would need to be able to make the right materials for them. If we want to send satellites into space, we need to develop materials that can remain stable in space, and if we want to explore the ocean floor at great depths, we need to invent materials that are durable enough to withstand extremely high water pressure and not be corroded by seawater. This is how mankind has researched and developed materials, and will continue to do so in the future.
The future of materials science will push the boundaries and explore the possibilities of new materials. For example, materials science combined with nanotechnology can create materials with properties that have never been imagined before. This will revolutionize many fields, including healthcare, the environment, and telecommunications. In addition, the development of eco-friendly materials with sustainability in mind will make our lives healthier and safer. Materials science will play a key role in energy storage and conversion, environmental protection, biotechnology, and more, and will contribute to solving some of the most important problems of the future.
The field of materials science and engineering has been around since the beginning of our species and will only become more important in the future. The development of new materials is a natural progression, especially in light of the energy and environmental challenges of today. The field of materials engineering is gaining importance in academia, not to mention in real life. As the title suggests, from the past to the future, materials engineering is the foundation of all engineering, leading other disciplines, and will continue to evolve until we are able to realize what humanity can imagine. And I think that’s what I, as an engineering student majoring in materials engineering, should do in the future.
