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The Stuff Things Are Made Of

Why metal bends, glass breaks, plastic lasts and silicon computes

Griffith · the polymer chemists · the wafer fabs · 3 chapters · 8 min read

Why metal bends, glass breaks, plastic lasts and silicon computes.

Free to read: every chapter below is open

Materials

  1. 01Why Metal Bends and Glass ShattersOn the defects that make metal useful.
  2. 02Chains, and Why They LastOn long chains, and why three billion years of evolution cannot eat them.
  3. 03A Gap Worth TrillionsOn a gap in the middle, and one impurity atom in ten million.