06/06/2014

It’s a Material World

30:24 minutes

Author Mark Miodownik. Copyright © 2013 by Mark Miodownik. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Author Mark Miodownik. Copyright © 2013 by Mark Miodownik. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Did you know that metals are actually crystals? Or that stainless steel was invented by accident? In his book Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape Our Man-Made World, Mark Miodownik takes stock of the stuff around us—a metal spoon, a drinking glass, a concrete building—and explains why these everyday materials are truly extraordinary. (Read an excerpt from the book here.)

Segment Guests

Mark Miodownik

Mark Miodownik is author of Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape our Man-Made World and Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives. He’s also director of the Institute of Making and professor of materials and society at University College London in London, England.

Heard on the Air

Read an excerpt from Stuff Matters.

Meet the Producer

About Christopher Intagliata

Christopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer. He once served as a prop in an optical illusion and speaks passable Ira Flatowese.

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An excerpt from Mark Miodownik's "Stuff Matters."

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