figure a
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The human brain is a marvelous instrument. It is the source of identity, self-awareness, and consciousness. It is the basis for our memory as well as our cognitive and creative abilities. It controls all of our functions including breathing, locomotion, and all of our senses. Without our brain and its capabilities, Homo sapiens would be little more than another mammalian species and might have been wiped out eons ago. Yes, our brain does fantastic things for us. Like many of you, mine occasionally leaves me with an earworm. Earworms are songs that we know that occasionally pop into our heads and play over and over again until some switch is toggled and the mind moves on to other activities. A couple of weeks ago my earworm was the theme song “Aquarius” from the musical Hair.2 The version playing in my head was the full orchestral version. This week I’ve had two earworms. The first was “For What It’s Worth” written by Stephen Stills and released by Buffalo Springfield.3

The second was “Material Girl” written by Peter Brown and Robert Rans, and released by Madonna. On its surface, “Material Girl” is a paean to women pursuing wealthy men. However, the video associated with Madonna’s release shows the woman falling for an apparently penniless man. Materialism in the sense of the words of the song is the pursuit of wealth, which includes money and possessions. Although many financial transactions these days take place electronically, the underlying nature of money and possessions are materials—paper cash, coins, paper stocks and bonds, jewelry, land, automobiles, boats, houses, furnishings, paintings, sculptures, etc. The real world in which we live is defined by materials.

Some believe that materialism is evil. Dualist religions have their basis in the belief that the universe is controlled by two powerful beings, one evil and one good. The Gnostics and the Manicheans believed that the good being was in control of all that is spiritual in life, and that the evil being was in control of materials and self, the more worldly aspects of life.4

And then there is us. We are researchers whose work involves studies of materials—how to make them, characterize their properties, analyze them, design them, simulate and model them, apply them, and all other aspects of materials research.

Materials research focuses on materials in the real world. Most of us work on materials in order to improve the lives of all individuals. Many of us publish our work in peer-reviewed journals and in conference proceedings volumes so that the public can have access to and benefit directly from our work. Others of us work in for-profit organizations that hold some work proprietary and control access to our work. Even so, much of that work evolves to the benefit of the public by providing new and improved products that they can purchase and/or use to improve the quality of their lives. Still others work in national laboratories, producing work that benefits the national goals of our countries.

I note that I’m not naive enough to believe that no evil results from our work. Many times there are unintended consequences. Thalidomide was developed as a medicine for pregnant women.5 The tragic consequences of its use were horrific, and it was quickly removed from use. DDT was developed as a tool to control infections borne by mosquitos, including malaria. It wasn’t until the consequences became clear through the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring6 that the use of DDT was banned.

figure c

There are also the horrors associated with the development of weapons of mass destruction. We can only live in hope that these are never used again.

We materials researchers work from a scientific, engineering, and technological perspective. Although, from the public’s perception, scientific and engineering research may appear to be arcane arts with strange rituals, we are not acolytes, priests, evangelists, nor followers of any god—certainly not any evil god. We do not worship materials research. We do not stir sulfurous pots muttering strange incantations. We do not draw pentagrams or other geometric shapes around our experimental equipment. We do not study alchemy or astrology. We do not consort with demons or gods or other fabulous creatures. (At least most of us don’t. But, there are some people of whom I’ve always had doubts.)

Okay, I’ve gone a little too far! Now I have to interrupt this rant in the interest of full disclosure and personal integrity. When I was much younger, my lab partners and I would occasionally make a votive offering to the laser god. The votive offering was usually in the form of pennies left at the sacred altar to seek the blessing of the laser god. The laser system that we worked with was a passively mode locked Nd:glass laser followed on our optical bench by a high-speed electro-optical shutter designed to select a single pulse from the mode locked train of pulses produced by the laser system. The system was slow and could only produce a pulse every 5–10 min. On some days, everything worked well and most of the pulses resulted in usable data. On other days, we were lucky to get one good pulse every hour or two. Those bad days were when we made our votive offerings to the laser god. I have to admit that I have no evidence to determine whether or not the votive offerings improved the performance of the system. Our professors and other blasphemers (er, uh—I mean professionals) all felt that there were other explanations. Perhaps the system alignment varied from day-to-day. Perhaps the mode locking solution varied in concentration or homogeneity on a day-to-day basis. Other such errant nonsense with an obvious scientific bias was also offered. May the laser god forgive them for their sins.

In addition to our profound interest in materials research, we (as human beings) also have to deal with common, everyday materialism. We have a wide range of interests, financial security, and ability to support various lifestyles. Some of us are extremely frugal, while others enjoy living “high on the hog.” As for me, I live a relatively modest lifestyle. I am frugal, but not harshly so. I’ve never managed to convince myself to buy the Corvette that I’ve always coveted. I have two vehicles, but one is 16 years old and the other is 6 years old. I live in a modest dwelling and enjoy inexpensive “comfort” foods rather than expensive meals at high-end restaurants. I don’t travel much. My only extravagance is books. I spend a significant amount of money on books every year. All that being said, I suspect that most of us would not rank very high on any measure of materialism.

If you want to expand your knowledge of materials (and that sort of “materialism”) but are not a member of the Materials Research Society (MRS), we are always looking for new members. You can go online to register and pay your dues straightaway. Otherwise, paid attendance at the Fall Meeting or Spring Meeting includes one year of membership, access to all of our journals, and other benefits. For a limited time only, no blood oath or sacred confirmation rite is required.

Steve Moss

Endnotes

  1. 1.

    “Material girl,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_Girl

  2. 2.

    “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarius/Let_the_Sunshine_In

  3. 3.

    “For what it's worth,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_What_It%27s_Worth

  4. 4.

    Y.N. Harper, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Harper, New York, Reprint, 2015),  p. 222

  5. 5.

    Thalidomide, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide

  6. 6.

    R. Carson, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1962)