Introduces an area of scientific research: materials science. This book describes how scientists are inventing 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.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Art of Making3Ch. 1Light Talk: Photonic Materials15Ch. 2Total Recall: Materials for Information Storage63Ch. 3Clever Stuff: Smart Materials103Ch. 4Only Natural: Biomaterials143Ch. 5Spare Parts: Biomedical Materials209Ch. 6Full Power: Materials for Clean Energy244Ch. 7Tunnel Vision: Porous Materials282Ch. 8Hard Work: Diamond and Hard Materials313Ch. 9Chain Reactions: The New Polymers344Ch. 10Face Value: Surfaces and Interfaces384Bibliography429Figure Credits445Index447

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1998 "Let me state up front that Made to Measure ... is an outstanding book. Written for the general reader, it will also greatly appeal to specialists. If you are a solid-state physicist, chemist, materials scientist, engineer, science policy maker, or keen amateur scientist, then sell your shirt to buy it."--Colin Humphreys, New Scientist "Philip Ball offers a panorama of 1,001 new materials for the next century... His survey would make a good textbook for an introductory course in materials science. For the rest of us, the sheer range of examples is impressive."--Jon Turney, Financial Times "Philip Ball writes about the very modern science of materials... [He] is full of fascinating insights, and especially on the photonic side of things he really opens the reader's eyes... [His] book is the first to be entirely devoted to this field. That task has been very well accomplished, and the book is warmly recommended."--Robert W. Cahn, European Journal of Physics

"Made to Measure is a lucid account of the most advanced new materials. While it describes today's technology, this book is really about the future. If you like the down-to-the-last-atom designer 'stuff' described within, you'll love the twenty-first century. The future will be built of such stuff."—Richard E. Smalley, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry"The Materials Era anticipated the principal frontiers in science, technology, and engineering of the second half of the twentieth century. Philip Ball, in Made to Measure, extends these frontiers into the next millennium with skillful foresight. For Ball, the 'measure' of matter implies product design, wherein knowledge of rapidly advancing materials systems is now crucial for progress in commerce and culture. His book qualifies as a reference on the very matter that supports the Information Age."—W. O. Baker, Retired Chairman of the Board, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies"Philip Ball's Made to Measure is an exceptional survey of state-of-art materials, science, and technology. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand where the advances in molecular physics are taking us in the 21st Century."—Professor Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry"The awesome cornucopia of modern material science, brimming with deft inventions and molecular marvels, is aptly and ably displayed here. Philip Ball's lucid exposition, augmented by dozens of well-crafted diagrams, celebrates the work of versatile bacterial elves as well as visionary scientists and engineers. Anyone eager to know what's coming, including both venture capitalists and poets, will relish this book."—Dudley Herschbach, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Made to Measure is a lucid account of the most advanced new materials. While it describes today's technology, this book is really about the future. If you like the down-to-the-last-atom designer 'stuff' described within, you'll love the twenty-first century. The future will be built of such stuff. -- Richard E. Smalley, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry The Materials Era anticipated the principal frontiers in science, technology, and engineering of the second half of the twentieth century. Philip Ball, in Made to Measure, extends these frontiers into the next millennium with skillful foresight. For Ball, the 'measure' of matter implies product design, wherein knowledge of rapidly advancing materials systems is now crucial for progress in commerce and culture. His book qualifies as a reference on the very matter that supports the Information Age. -- W. O. Baker, Retired Chairman of the Board, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies Philip Ball's Made to Measure is an exceptional survey of state-of-art materials, science, and technology. It is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand where the advances in molecular physics are taking us in the 21st Century. -- Professor Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry The awesome cornucopia of modern material science, brimming with deft inventions and molecular marvels, is aptly and ably displayed here. Philip Ball's lucid exposition, augmented by dozens of well-crafted diagrams, celebrates the work of versatile bacterial elves as well as visionary scientists and engineers. Anyone eager to know what's coming, including both venture capitalists and poets, will relish this book. -- Dudley Herschbach, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry