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Competition among materials
GUEST EDITORIALS
the first years of study and selected with the purpose of awakening interdisciplinary relations. 5. Secondary Level At this level, materials may be as u n k n o w n to students as to teachers. Specially prepared kits and pre-formed courses with audio-visual aids could satisfy that lack in the teacher's preparation. One of the desirable results of such an initiative would be that teachers ask for ever-increasing information about materials at their level. 6. General Diffusion Informative talks, audio-visual and television aids, divulgence projects on materials and other publicity means could be prepared with-
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out too much effort by the same educational team, reaching a large number of people, through modern methods of communication. It is clear that the key to the matter lies in getting the best experts in materials from universities and industry to work together in introducing Materials Science and Engineering as a subject at every educational level, presenting it from a new, challenging and interdisciplinary approach.
NELLY A. DE LIBANATI
Director, Pan-American Courses on Metallurgy, Department of Metallurgy, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Competition Among Materials
The relative importance of various materials, whether used for construction or fuels, will certainly change with the development of new technologies and the emergence of new technological problems. Ideally, our technological developments should be aimed at saving materials for their most important future use. New technologies make materials that were little more than laboratory curiosities of very great potential importance. An example is the potential of superconductive power transmission which makes niobium, tin and helium even more important. As the search for higher Tc materials progresses, other materials may be newcomers to this list. We have seen how hafnium and zirconium, closely associated in their natural ores, play important roles in reactor technology. We have examples of wide changes in the principal uses of materials. Thorium, for example, had its first major use in incandescent gas mantles in the late 19th century. This use was replaced by widespread use in
the electronics industry in photocells, electronic tubes and vacuum system technology. Now we find it of interest as a nuclear fuel. Some materials are uniquely qualified for specific uses, while others can be traded off on considerations of cost, convenience and local availability. We should shape our technological developments to use materials that will be abundant in the future, to use materials that can be easily recycled, to use materials that have a low energy c o n t e n t in their production. It is important to provide for increased long range planning and prediction on these matters. Planners should always remember that natural economic forces relating to supply, demand and taxation, or other governmental incentives and restraints, must be considered and utilized to give assurance that objectives considered desirable will indeed be realized. G.A. ROBERTS
President, Teledyne, Inc., Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
the first years of study and selected with the purpose of awakening interdisciplinary relations. 5. Secondary Level At this level, materials may be as u n k n o w n to students as to teachers. Specially prepared kits and pre-formed courses with audio-visual aids could satisfy that lack in the teacher's preparation. One of the desirable results of such an initiative would be that teachers ask for ever-increasing information about materials at their level. 6. General Diffusion Informative talks, audio-visual and television aids, divulgence projects on materials and other publicity means could be prepared with-
199
out too much effort by the same educational team, reaching a large number of people, through modern methods of communication. It is clear that the key to the matter lies in getting the best experts in materials from universities and industry to work together in introducing Materials Science and Engineering as a subject at every educational level, presenting it from a new, challenging and interdisciplinary approach.
NELLY A. DE LIBANATI
Director, Pan-American Courses on Metallurgy, Department of Metallurgy, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Competition Among Materials
The relative importance of various materials, whether used for construction or fuels, will certainly change with the development of new technologies and the emergence of new technological problems. Ideally, our technological developments should be aimed at saving materials for their most important future use. New technologies make materials that were little more than laboratory curiosities of very great potential importance. An example is the potential of superconductive power transmission which makes niobium, tin and helium even more important. As the search for higher Tc materials progresses, other materials may be newcomers to this list. We have seen how hafnium and zirconium, closely associated in their natural ores, play important roles in reactor technology. We have examples of wide changes in the principal uses of materials. Thorium, for example, had its first major use in incandescent gas mantles in the late 19th century. This use was replaced by widespread use in
the electronics industry in photocells, electronic tubes and vacuum system technology. Now we find it of interest as a nuclear fuel. Some materials are uniquely qualified for specific uses, while others can be traded off on considerations of cost, convenience and local availability. We should shape our technological developments to use materials that will be abundant in the future, to use materials that can be easily recycled, to use materials that have a low energy c o n t e n t in their production. It is important to provide for increased long range planning and prediction on these matters. Planners should always remember that natural economic forces relating to supply, demand and taxation, or other governmental incentives and restraints, must be considered and utilized to give assurance that objectives considered desirable will indeed be realized. G.A. ROBERTS
President, Teledyne, Inc., Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.