Introduction

Abstract

History of human being has always been closely tied to the materials they have had available. Ancient civilizations commenced their existence using the naturally available materials such as soil, stone, plants, and even bones. For a very long period of time during the history of mankind, humans survived using only these naturally occurring and easily obtained materials. Hence, searching for new materials with diverse range of characteristics and acquiring knowledge about their application have been a fundamental basis for human development and innovation since the early days. Challenged by the daily life, human has always been curious to discover new materials to achieve broader range of his ambitious desires. From this perspective, the appropriate material of choice was and still is determined not only based on availability, cost, efforts, and even the ease of implementation, but also based on the specific properties offered by the material to satisfy the part functionality and design requirements. These requirements include but are not limited to a broad spectrum of properties such as strength, toughness, heat resistance, corrosion resistance as well as essential tools, equipment, and manufacturing processes. Thus, materials and materials science have been the fundamental factors to the development of civilizations. The importance of materials to the development of civilizations is to the extent that the anthropologists classify the historical eras based on the materials used during that era such as the stone, copper, bronze, and iron.