Gr 9 Up-Designed for students interested in learning more about the field of material science and engineering, this book attempts to explain and define many complex structures, terms, developments, and uses of chemical substances. After a helpful chapter covering basic chemistry, Bortz focuses on various materials used within this science. Topics begin with electricity and the function of conductors and semiconductors, silicon, and transistors. Explanations of the binary system used in computers, and types of polymers and their structures follow. Beginning in the Stone Age, technical developments are traced through stone, clay, fire, bronze, glass, etc., placing scientific developments into proper relationship with current developments in the field. The concluding chapter looks at the role material science and engineering will play in medicine in the future as well as the further development of biomimetics-mimicking life's processes. Definitions of unfamiliar terms and explanations of differences in structures appear within the text, in an attempt to help explain this extremely complex subject. Chapters progress somewhat sequentially in an effort to divide information into understandable parts with numerous sidebars, pictures, and diagrams providing further explanation. This is one of the few books written for young adults covering this technical field. This is a very complicated topic, however, and even though the book is well done, it will likely have a limited audience.
Susan Shaver, Hemingford Public Schools, NE
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 7-12. Physicist Bortz satisfies the curiosity of readers wanting to know why and how some of the marvels of technology evolved and work. He makes complex ideas manageable through lucid text, set down on 64 aesthetically appealing, wide-margin pages, which are illustrated with plenty of great photos and diagrams. After providing general background in "It's Not Magic; It's Microstructure," he dedicates each subsequent chapter to a different type of matter--electro-matter, poly-matter, super-matter, and so on. Chapters on electricity, digital computing, and poly-matter precede broader, historically based chapters concerning materials that evolved since the Stone Age and materials of the future related to superconductivity and nanotechnology. Although the terminology may sound weighty, Bortz is especially adept at paring down complicated explanations and expressing them clearly. His enthusiasm for his subject always shines through, a great incentive to teen science enthusiasts and future techno-wizards. Roger Leslie
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