Comments on Welcome to the World of Material Science!

Go to Richard LeeAdd a commentGo to Welcome to the World of Material Science!

I like this blog! sam 

posted by sam444 on July 5, 2013 at 12:40 PM | link to this | reply

This is a good resource. BC-A, Bill's Rst

posted by BC-A on July 3, 2013 at 12:55 PM | link to this | reply

Reading this reminds me of the Periodic Table.

posted by FormerStudentIntern on July 3, 2013 at 9:23 AM | link to this | reply

Welcome to the World of Bullet-proof Glass!

Welcome to the world of bullet-proof glass! This is a laminate material, i.e. two outer layers of ordinary glass sandwiching an inner layer of thin plastic. Ordinary glass is very hard, but brittle, so a small child of two with a stone can easily smash the glass. The plastic by itself, even a thick layer, can still break, as I saw broken thick plastic walls of bus stops. So the trick is by combining them, you get the best of both worlds, i.e. the super-hardness of the glass, harder than steel, in fact, and the resilience of the plastic. You therefore have a glass that even poor Arnold Swarzenegger with a huge mallet can never smash! So materials like this could be used at home where security against burglary is essential. Only bombs of at least moderate size, like one in a bazooker, will be able to produce a blast strong enough to make a big hole in the glass, but even then, not shatter it to pieces.  

posted by Richard5000 on July 3, 2013 at 8:48 AM | link to this | reply

Man Made versus Natural Drugs!

Both man made drugs and natural drugs are important for our welfare. Man made drugs are under Mainstream Medicine, are organic chemicals synthesized using the means of synthetic organic chemistry, pharmacy, pharmacology. Their function is primarily to save one from an illness or even to save one's life from a disease or illness. Their function is not to heal the body. Natural drugs, on the other hand, are under disciplines such as Herbal Medicine, are also organic chemicals, but derived from plants. Their organic chemistry and organic chemical structures are likely to be quite/very different from their synthetic counterparts. Their function is primarily to heal one from an illness or a disease, but not to save one's life from these. Therefore both have their strengths and weaknesses. I believe that to get the best of both worlds, it would be ideal to combine them, to eliminate the weaknesses of both, and only get the strengths of both. In the UK, both disciplines exist in chemists and herbal shops, but unfortunately in hospitals, only Mainstream Medicine is practised. This means patients' lives are saved, but do not get better in health, so they eventually still die. I think the problem is due to the vastness of information of combining both disciplines, that it it is certainly too much knowledge for an individual to learn. Something certainly has gone wrong. But I learned over twenty years ago that in Chinese hospitals, both Acupuncture and Mainstream Medicine are practised together. This is excellent news for the Chinese. As a result, Chinese patients' lives are not only saved from death, but their bodies are also healed, and that means good health, longevity, and happiness. I would therefore want the UK to adopt a similar approach.   

posted by Richard5000 on July 3, 2013 at 8:32 AM | link to this | reply