'Mind-boggling' alloy is Earth's toughest material, even at extreme temperatures

Dec 2, 2022
7
2
35
Visit site
Comparisons to graphene generate big numbers, but mean almost nothing. Gold is infinitely malleable. How does the strength and stiffness of this alloy compare? It would be nice to have articles about materials written by people who do engineering, rather than people who write articles based on press releases. Strength, stiffness, and toughness all have to be defined numerically to describe a material well. Many people don't even know the difference, and they are not getting educated by writing like this.
 
Dec 22, 2022
4
1
10
Visit site
Here are the writer's credentials, no engineering, but a lot of science. Is he qualified?

"Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. who specializes in science, space, physics, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, quantum mechanics and technology. Rob's articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University "
 
Those low temp properties are impressive. If only we could invert that for high temps. We need high temp materials for mixing and containment. Preferably low mass materials. These new 2D and multi layer atomic structures have lots of promise. We have only cracked these materials. Much to do and learn about these structures.....the only models we have are mathematical. And a lot of that is inferred.

I have a feeling that with the internet and the way information has become a market commodity, it might be years before we here of real discoveries. Serious research is probably highly protected and legalized(divided monetary potential) before any release.
 
Jan 9, 2023
1
0
10
Visit site
Comparisons to graphene generate big numbers, but mean almost nothing. Gold is infinitely malleable. How does the strength and stiffness of this alloy compare? It would be nice to have articles about materials written by people who do engineering, rather than people who write articles based on press releases. Strength, stiffness, and toughness all have to be defined numerically to describe a material well. Many people don't even know the difference, and they are not getting educated by writing like this.

Thanks for the feedback Bob.

Just to be clear, the article wasn't based on a press release but on interviews with both Dong Liu and Robert Oliver conducted by myself. While I'm not an engineer (I can barely put an Ikea table together) they are most definitely qualified in this field. Liu in particular raised the comparisons with graphene so I feel they are completely warranted.

Happy bicycling btw!

Best,

Rob