Three megatechnologies will dominate the last decade of the 20th Century: Information Technology, Biotechnology and New Materials Technology. New materials have been the least well publicized, yet they play a crucial precursor role in most other technological innovation. Developments in materials science now give us the ability to design so-called ‘advanced materials’ from scratch for specific purposes. They have a wide variety of applications. In addition, new materials technology extends the notion of choice in the production process and as such it has major implications for engineers, designers and managers.
Australia is in theory well-placed to take advantage of the materials revolution in terms of natural resources, environment and existing research strengths. But although some impressive and useful work has been done by the Department of Science in targeting fruitful areas for future research, an international comparison of materials R&D and a review of what the Australian government and private sector has done so far suggests that Australia once again is doing too little too late.
Hondros E. D.. 1986. . Materials, year 2000 — A perspective. . International Journal of Materials and Product Technology . , Vol. 1((1)): 1––22. .
Japanese peer into crystal ball of science’, The Australian, 14 October 1987.
Gene Gregory. . 1987. . New materials technology in Japan. . International Journal of Materials and Product Technology . , Vol. 2((1)): 1––17. .
Melvin Kranzberg and Cyril Stanley Smith, ‘Materials in history and society’, Materials Science and Engineering, 37, 1, January 1979, pp. 1-39; John Nef, The Conquest of the Material World: Essays on the Coming of Industrialism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1964 and Meridian Books, Cleveland, Ohio, 1967.
Eric Drexler K.. 1986. . Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology . , New York : : Anchor Press/Doubleday. .
For this and following descriptions of new materials, see ‘Materials for economic growth’, Scientific American special issue, 255, 4, October 1986; Peter A. Psaras and H. Dale Langford (eds), Advancing Materials Research, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1987; New Structural Materials Technologies: Opportunities for the Use of Advanced Ceramics and Composites, Office of Technology Assessment, US Congress, Washington, D.C., 1986; A Programme for the Wider Application of New and Improved Materials and Processes, Report of the Materials Advisory Group, chaired by John Collyear, Department of Trade & Industry, London, UK, 1985.
Michael D. Lemonick, ‘Superconductors! The startling breakthrough that could change our world’, Time, 11 May 1987; ‘Not-So-Superconductors’, The Economist, 13 June 1987; T. A. Heppenheimer, ‘Superconducting: the new billion dollar business’, High Technology, July 1987; Alison Bass, ‘Superconductivity research: pace slows, reality catches up’, The Boston Globe, 9 November 1987.
Thomas W. Eagar, ‘The real challenge in materials engineering,’ Technology Review, 90, 2, February-March 1987; Evaluation of Technological Priorities II: Engineering Ceramics, PREST, University of Manchester, January 1987.
Alexander W. O.. 1987. . The competition of materials. . Scientific American . , Vol. 217: September;: 225––66. .
Richard L. Meier, ‘Information, Resource Use, And Economic Growth’, in J.J. Spengler (ed.), National Resources and Economic Growth, Papers presented to a conference held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 7-9, 1960, John Hopkins Press, 1961, pp. 98–119.
Meier, op. cit., pp. 119-25.
Joel P. Clark and Merton C. Flemings, ‘Advanced materials and the economy’, Scientific American, 255, 4, October 1986, pp. 50-7; see also W. Dale Compton and Norman A. Gjostein, ‘Materials for ground transportation’ in the same issue, pp. 92–101.
George F. Ray, ‘The contribution of science and technology to the supply of industrial materials’, National Institute Economic Review, 92, London, May 1980; Charles Maurice and Charles W. Smithson, The Doomsday Myth: 10,000 Years of Economic Crises, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, California, 1984.
Eric D. Larson, Marc H. Ross and Robert H. Williams, ‘Beyond the era of materials’, Scientific American, 254, 6, June, 1986, pp. 24–31.
Selecting Technologies for the Future: A Discussion Paper, Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce, Canberra, June 1987.
W.J. McG. Tegart, ‘Advanced materials — A challenge for Australia’, in Materials Research Opportunities for Australia, Department of Science, Canberra, February 1986, p. 36.
W.J. McG. Tegart, op. cit., pp. 37–41.
W.J. McG. Tegart, ‘Advanced materials — A key technology for Australia?’, Adrian Ashton Lecture, The Australian Institute of Metals, University of New South Wales, 13 March 1985.
W.J. McG. Tegart, Materials Research Opportunities for Australia, op. cit., pp. 45–6.
W.J. McG. Tegart, op. cit., p. 45.
Selecting Technologies for the Future: A Discussion Paper, op. cit., pp. 48-51. Unfortunately, this document was written in December, 1986 — just before news broke of major breakthroughs in high-temperature superconductivity.
Brian Johns L.. 1988. . Economic considerations in the selection of generic technologies. . Prometheus . , Vol. 6((1)) June;: 16––7. .
Materials Research Opportunities for Australia, op. cit., pp. 17–8.
Materials Research Opportunities for Australia, op. cit., p. 16.
Quoted in Richard Pree, ‘Superconductor research given valuable boost’, The Australian, 28 July 1987.
Quoted in Christopher Dawson, ‘Discovering the secrets of electricity’, The Australian, 20 January 1988.
The papers by Hondros, Gregory, Kranzberg and Smith, Lemonick, Eagar, Clark and Flemings and Larson et al. among others are all reprinted in the author's latest book, The Materials Revolution, to be published by the MIT Press later this year.