Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Made to Measure introduces a general audience to one of today's most exciting areas of scientific research: materials science. Philip Ball describes how scientists are currently inventing thousands of new materials, ranging from synthetic skin, blood, and bone to substances that repair themselves and adapt to their environment, that swell and flex like muscles, that repel any ink or paint, and that capture and store the energy of the Sun. He shows how all this is being accomplished precisely because, for the first time in history, materials are being "made to measure": designed for particular applications, rather than discovered in nature or by haphazard experimentation. Now scientists literally put new materials together on the drawing board in the same way that a blueprint is specified for a house or an electronic circuit. But the designers are working not with skylights and alcoves, not with transistors and capacitors, but with molecules and atoms.


This book is written in the same engaging manner as Ball's popular book on chemistry, Designing the Molecular World , and it links insights from chemistry, biology, and physics with those from engineering as it outlines the various areas in which new materials will transform our lives in the twenty-first century. The chapters provide vignettes from a broad range of selected areas of materials science and can be read as separate essays. The subjects include photonic materials, materials for information storage, smart materials, biomaterials, biomedical materials, materials for clean energy, porous materials, diamond and hard materials, new polymers, and surfaces and interfaces.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Art of Making (p. 3)
• Ch. 1 Light Talk: Photonic Materials (p. 15)
• Ch. 2 Total Recall: Materials for Information Storage (p. 63)
• Ch. 3 Clever Stuff: Smart Materials (p. 103)
• Ch. 4 Only Natural: Biomaterials (p. 143)
• Ch. 5 Spare Parts: Biomedical Materials (p. 209)
• Ch. 6 Full Power: Materials for Clean Energy (p. 244)
• Ch. 7 Tunnel Vision: Porous Materials (p. 282)
• Ch. 8 Hard Work: Diamond and Hard Materials (p. 313)
• Ch. 9 Chain Reactions: The New Polymers (p. 344)
• Ch. 10 Face Value: Surfaces and Interfaces (p. 384)
• Bibliography (p. 429)
• Figure Credits (p. 445)
• Index (p. 447)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Ball's (Designing the Molecular World, LJ 5/15/94) far-reaching work takes the reader on a long, strange, sometimes tedious, often difficult trip through the arcane world of new materials‘the stuff scientists and engineers have created, or are speculating about, for propelling the high-technology boom to new heights. Ball thoroughly explores the use of what he calls advanced materials in the fields of photonics (which, he argues, will entirely replace electronics one day), information storage, biomedicine, and energy, to name a few. Something he calls smart materials will eventually replace whole machines: "[Imagine] a smart valve [that] is no more than a tube through which the fluid passes; when the flow exceeds [some] critical value, the material of the tube expands until it pinches off the flow." There are lots of good photographs and schematics for aiding the sometimes dizzying exposition. Most appropriate for interested readers with a college-level background in chemistry and physics.‘Robert C. Ballou, Atlanta (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Ball's subject is materials science, and his book is appropriately subtitled. He places technical developments in historical and societal perspective and makes some guarded predictions about the kinds of things we will have in the future, all the while assuring us that not every scientific discovery will become a consumer product. The introduction briefly covers the history of technology from papermaking 12 centuries ago up to today's designer molecules. There are detailed discussions of such varied items as microlasers, memory devices, micromachinery, biodegradable sutures, ceramic bone replacement, solar energy production, batteries, molecular sieves, diamonds, polymers, thin films, and surfaces. This well-written book clearly explains technical details for nonscientists, yet broadly covers fundamental concepts for scientists. Brief discussions are included to explain how things are made and how that affects production, hence availability. Proponents of technology as well as opponents will find it fascinating. Included are some excellent ideas for research topics, seminar presentations, and student papers. This book should be in all university libraries; it is appropriate for all students and faculty. All levels. D. G. Montague; Willamette University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Philip Ball is an associate editor for physical sciences with Nature . He contributes regular articles on all fields of science to the academic and popular press, and is the author of Designing the Molecular World (Princeton) and The Self-Made Tapestry (Oxford).