The science and technology of materials have set milestones of human civilization. We have mastered the art of making a wide variety of materials with many interesting mechanical properties. Some materials like ceramics, glasses and mineral crystals are hard and fragile. Others like rubbers and collagen are soft and tough. During the Bronze and Iron ages, man learned to make hard and tough materials in the form of various metals and metallic alloys. With the maturity of the field of metallurgy during the 20th century, we now understand that the hardness and toughness of metals are largely attributed to their crystalline structure which allows an important class of material defects called dislocations to move around and relieve stress concentration at crack-like flaws. One of the next big challenges for humanity is to develop hard and tough materials without dislocations, as this would open a vast new t
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Contact: Prof. Huajian Gao
hjgao@mf.mpg.de
49-711-689-3510
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
14-May-2003