Living in a material world

The history of humanity begins with the development of civilisations that today we group into technological phases defined by the material that at any given time attained the highest degree of development (Stone Age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age). Ever since, the development of the human being has been closely linked to his relationship with the materials that surround him: how to extract them, how to transform them, how to use them, how to synthesise them, how to recycle them… right from the earliest materials that man extracted from nature (timber, clay, stone, etc) to the use of the application of heat to the revolution in nanotechnology and nanoscience.

Technological Challenges

The technological challenges are the greatest ever faced by man in all his history. Despite having perfected the extraction of raw materials, dominated the synthesis of new materials, developed processing and manufacturing technologies and used different sources of energy for our activities, we have barely taken into account the consequences that all these phases had on our surroundings.

We are currently living in the silicon era, a new revolution that has propitiated the development of electronics and information and communication technologies.

Today we know that the environmental vector cannot be neglected in our activities; it has to be considered as a factor of maximum importance. In this context, recent decades have seen the emergence of a new discipline called bionics or biomimetics. These terms became popular as the result of the publication of the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature (1997) by Janine Beynus, which deals with “a new science that studies models from nature and is inspired in these designs and processes to address human problems”.

Biomimetics and sustainability

Science and Engineering have always had nature as a model and have used it to prosper; however, in recent times this natural study has become systematised, coherently involving professionals from different disciplines (biologists, designers, physicists, engineers, chemists, etc) to maximise the benefits extracted from the knowledge of Nature. While currently it still contains secrets that we cannot decipher, there is no doubt that the mimicry of natural processes, materials and solutions will be one of society’s routes to development and innovation.

At this point we have to stop and reflect: is biomimetics the universal solution to our environmental problems? The answer is no. Biomimetics is a tool under development and a source of innovation; a “new” (insofar as it refers to systematisation) starting point and approach to the search for occasional solutions to the challenges set by technological development. And we cannot always obtain the sought-for answer from Nature; at this point, as researchers well know, we need to change the model and continue to probe.

But there is still a tendency to directly associate biomimetics with sustainability, as if the former unequivocally involved the latter. There is no doubt that Nature can teach us much about how to protect life and resources (she has been doing it for millions of years), but knowing how to properly channel the information she provides towards developments that represent an environmental advance depends on us only insofar as it helps in “limiting the damage to the environment”.

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Post from Hello Materials

An age of technology

“In the age of information and technology, material is the most mystic medium to convey the ideas that lie behind and bring it into the world”

In the age of information and technology, material is the most mystic medium to convey the ideas that lie behind and bring it into the world. For example, a curved windshield of the automobile seems to be a simple transparent product, but it is produced by numerous inventions such as pre-polishing of edges, water-repellent surface coating, glass lamination, improvement of de-molding agent, or self-weight-bending technology. The self-weight-bending technology of Central Glass Co., Ltd in Japan is the complicated technology when applied to the laminated glasses.

Because it is quite difficult to bend two sheets of glass simultaneously in the furnace, the micro-sized release agent is needed to let two sheets of glasses slip past each other. By the invention of this agent, layered glasses can then bend themselves according to the distribution of weight units set along their rims, which positions were carefully calculate to realize the ideal convex form. These technologies are totally unseen, but if we lack any of these, the windshield would never be made.

Another story I like is about the aluminum beer cans, which are produced by “deep draw and iron press” method. When the disks of aluminum get punched in the molding machine, their rims consequently stand and grow to form deep cylinders. The next thing is to cut the edge of the cylinder, to have the joint for the lid. It is good to know that the cylinder is made from the sheet, by employing the malleability of aluminum. This method was originally invented for the bullet cartridge, but now applied for softer metals, with more peaceful usage, with less power of the press.

When I see the continuous corner between the bottom and the side of the beer cans, I always remind of this unspoken process of production. Without it, we will need another joint for the bottom lid like steel cans.

“In that sense, material is a vehicle fulfilled with the “soul” of our contemporary technology”

If you carefully observe designed objects around you, perhaps you may hear the thud sound of the press of aluminum cans, or feel the bending forces of windshield glass in the red-hot furnace. That is why I like materials, which certainly exist in front of me, with the unspoken secrets of their birth. Their ingredients and parts should come from somewhere in this globe, and mixed and combined together in a factory of somewhere, through hands and ideas of somebodies. In that sense, material is a vehicle fulfilled with the “soul” of our contemporary technology.

Confident Approach

If it was 10 years ago, we can conclude that this trend is for the adaptability or changeability, and the materials can be praised with their “capricious” behaviors. But it seems that the materials today are more “confident” for their reason of existence, and can quickly adjust themselves to the surrounding conditions with their ability of self-control. They are phenomena by themselves, and the chance to see their “true” states of being become less and less. That is why contemporary materials attract us, with their mystic characteristics.

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Post from Hello Materials