Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast Taylor Sparks and Andrew Falkowski

Choosing the wrong material can have dire consequences. In this episode of our failure series, we discuss how the incorrect choice of epoxy led to a catastrophic failure and a tragic death. Discover the series of poor decisions that turned a new highway plan into one of the costliest public works projects ever. Join us as we uncover the lessons learned from this devastating event and the changes it inspired.

Selected References:


The Big Dig: project background [LINK]
Control of Epoxy Creep Using Graphene [LINK]
Forensic Engineering Applied to Failures in Concrete Polymer Materials [LINK]

This Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Materials Today, an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more

This episode of the Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Cal Nano, leading experts in spark plasma sintering and cryomilling technologies. You can learn more about their work and services by visiting their website.

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks , Andrew Falkowski and, Jared Duffy

Keywords: The Big dig Tunnel Failure Underground Highway Epoxy Creep Boston Massachusetts

Electron microscopy is almost a century old, but it continues to play a role in exciting new developments that extend its use well beyond its original purpose. We sit down with Professor Sergei Kalinin from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville to discuss these exciting new applications of this older technology. Learn how electron microscopy, originally developed for imaging, is now used for atom-by-atom materials fabrication. We also explore how combining this technology with machine learning can streamline scientists' work.

This Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Materials Today, an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more

This episode of the Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Cal Nano, leading experts in spark plasma sintering and cryomilling technologies. You can learn more about their work and services by visiting their website.

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing).

Keywords: Electron Microscopy

The discovery of new materials is an immense challenge, with a vast design space and numerous success criteria. Microsoft has recently demonstrated an advanced approach to machine learning-assisted material discovery, particularly in the realm of lithium-ion battery electrolytes.

They began by exploring all possible structure types, decorating these structures with various atoms, leading to a pool of millions of candidate materials. The screening process went beyond simple stability checks to encompass a broad range of criteria, including predicted properties, electrode stability, and cost. This was achieved through various layers of filtering, leveraging data from diverse calculations, ranging from costly DFT and MD simulations to lower-fidelity calculations.

Microsoft wisely positioned the expensive calculations towards the end of the pipeline, focusing resources only on the most promising candidates. Furthermore, they partnered with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to synthesize the compounds identified.

In this podcast, we'll delve into this process, the challenges faced, and the future opportunities in this field, in conversation with Chi Chen and Nathan Baker.

If you want more details on teh work microsoft is doing in this space, you can check out their paper where they provide more details on the methodology and experimental results.

This episode of the Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Microsoft Azure Quantum Elements. You can try out their new copilot tools in an online demo on their Copilot Website. And if you want to learn more about how Microsoft is accelerating scientific discovery, you can head over to the Microsoft Azure Quantum Elements Website.

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing).

Keywords: AI Quantum Microsoft Materials Acceleration Battery Lithium Ion Li

Designing a great material is only half the battle, now you need to sell it. In this episode we sat down with Dan Wilson from Sintx and took a dive into the surprisingly nuanced world of materials sales and the challenges and pitfalls of marketing materials solutions.

Learn more about Sintx and the great materials they are developing by visiting their website at: http://www.sintx.com/

The Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Cal Nano, leading experts in spark plasma sintering and cryomilling technologies. You can learn more about their work and services by visiting their website.

This Materialism Podcast is also sponsored by Materials Today, an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more.

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing).

Keywords: Sales, marketing, salesmanship

The challenge of plastic pollution in our environment will be a defining issue in the coming decades. To address this problem, scientists have developed a host of next generation biodegradable plastics that have the potential to improve the sustainability of single use products. Among these are a class of materials called PHAs which are of particular interest as their microorganism origins are also the means of their decomposition. Join us for a discussion with Nick Sandland as we explore the fascinating world of biodegradable polymers and what the future of plastics will look like.

The Materialism Podcast is sponsored by SciSpace, a new tool that helps streamline the process of reading and exploring materials science literature. You can learn more about their services and tools by visiting their website.

If you like to learn more about PHAs and their potential to transform the plastics industry check out GO!PHA [CLICK HERE]

The Materialism Podcast is sponsored by Cal Nano, leading experts in spark plasma sintering and cryomilling technologies. You can learn more about their work and services by visiting their website.

This Materialism Podcast is also sponsored by Materials Today, an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more.

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing).

Keywords: Green Plastic Bio Degradable Biodegradable Single Use PHA Pollution microplastics

There’s more to a material’s microstructure than meets the eye! In this episode of the Materialism Podcast we dive into the world of Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) characterization, and discuss some of the important properties you can measure with it including grain size, phase distribution, texture, and more! To help us navigate this topic, we sat down with Stuart Wright and Matt Nowell from AMETEK who lend us decades of experience and intimate knowledge of the technique to provide thorough coverage of the past, present, and future of EBSD.

This episode is sponsored by Gatan. A leading manufacturer or products designed to enhance and extend the life of electron microscopes. You can learn more about their products and services by visiting their website.

If you'd like to stay informed about EBSD and EDS news and promotions from EDAX [CLICK HERE]

The Materialism Podcast is sponsored by American Elements, a leading manufacturer and supplier of materials. You can learn more about their work and services by visiting their website.

This Materialism Podcast is also sponsored by Materials Today, an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more.

Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at materialism.podcast@gmail.com or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing).

Keywords: EBSD Electron Backscattering Diffraction microstructure