Why the story of materials is really

2024年2月10日發(fā)(作者：蘑菇濃湯的做法)

Why the story of materials is really the story of civilisation?

為什么物質(zhì)的故事真的是文明的故事？

Everything is made of something. Take away concrete, glass, textiles, metal, and the other materials from our lives and we are left naked, shivering in a muddy field. The sophistication of our lives is in a large part bestowed by material wealth, we would quickly revert to animal behaviour without the stuff of our civilisation: what makes us human is our clothes, our homes, our cities, our things, which we animate through our customs and language. This becomes very apparent if you ever visit a disaster zone. Thus the material world is not just a display of our technology and culture, it is part of us, we invented it, we made it and it makes us

who we are. 一切都是由某種東西構(gòu)成的。把混凝土、玻璃、紡織品、金屬和其他材料從我們的生活中拿走，我們就赤身裸體，在泥濘的田野里瑟瑟發(fā)抖。我們生活中的詭辯在很大程度上是由物質(zhì)財(cái)富賦予的，如果沒(méi)有我們文明的東西，我們會(huì)很快回復(fù)到萬(wàn)物有靈的行為:使我們成為人類(lèi)的是我們的衣服、我們的家庭、我們的城市、我們的事物，我們通過(guò)我們的習(xí)俗和語(yǔ)言賦予它們生命。如果你去過(guò)災(zāi)區(qū)，這一點(diǎn)就很明顯了。因此，物質(zhì)世界不僅僅是我們技術(shù)和文化的展示，它是我們的一部分，我們發(fā)明了它，我們創(chuàng)造了它，它造就了我們。

The fundamental importance of materials is made clear from the naming of ages of civilisations – the stone, iron and bronze ages – with each new era being brought about by a new material. Iron and steel were the defining materials of the Victorian era, allowing engineers

to give full rein to their dreams of creating suspension bridges, railways, steam engines and

pasnger liners. Isambard Kingdom Brunel ud them as a manifesto to transform the landscape and sow the eds of modernism. The 20th century is often hailed as the age of silicon, after the breakthrough in materials science that ushered in the silicon chip and the information revolution. Yet a kaleidoscope of other new materials also revolutionid modern living. Architects took mass-produced sheet glass and combined it with structural steel to produce skyscrapers that invented a new type of city life. Plastics transformed our homes and dress. Polymers were ud to produce celluloid and ushered in a new visual culture, the cinema. The development of aluminium alloys and nickel superalloys enabled us to fly cheaply and accelerated the collision

of cultures. Medical and dental ceramics allowed us to rebuild ourlves and redefine disability and ageing – and as the term "plastic surgery" implies, materials are often the key to new treatments ud to repair our faculties (hip replacements) or enhance our features (silicone

implants for breast enlargement).

材料的根本重要性從文明時(shí)代的命名中變得清晰起來(lái)——石器時(shí)代、鐵器時(shí)代和青銅時(shí)代——每個(gè)新時(shí)代都是由一種新材料帶來(lái)的。鋼鐵是維多利亞時(shí)代的決定性材料，這使得工程師們可以充分發(fā)揮他們創(chuàng)造吊橋、鐵路、蒸汽機(jī)和客輪的夢(mèng)想。伊桑巴德·金德姆·布魯內(nèi)爾用它們作為宣言來(lái)改造大地景觀，播下現(xiàn)代主義的種子。20世紀(jì)通常被譽(yù)為硅的時(shí)代，因?yàn)椴牧峡茖W(xué)的突破帶來(lái)了硅芯片和信息革命。然而，其他新材料的萬(wàn)花筒也給現(xiàn)代生活帶來(lái)了革命性的變化。建筑師們采用大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)的平板玻璃，并將其與結(jié)構(gòu)鋼結(jié)合起來(lái)，制造出摩天大樓，從而創(chuàng)造出一種新的城市生活方式。塑料改變了我們的家庭和著裝。聚合物被用來(lái)生產(chǎn)賽璐珞，并開(kāi)創(chuàng)了一種新的視覺(jué)文化——電影。鋁合金和鎳超合金的發(fā)展使我們能夠廉價(jià)飛行，并加速了文化的碰撞。醫(yī)學(xué)和牙科陶瓷讓我們能夠重塑自我，重新定義殘疾和衰老——正如“整形外科”一詞所暗示的那樣，材料通常是用于修復(fù)我們的官能(髖關(guān)節(jié)置換)或增強(qiáng)我們的特征(隆胸硅膠植入物)的新療法的關(guān)鍵。

My obssion with materials started as a teenager. I was puzzled by their obscurity, despite being all around us. How many people can spot the difference between aluminium and steel? Woods are clearly different from one another, but how many people can say why? Plastics are confusing; who knows the difference between polythene and polypropylene? Eventually I enrolled in a degree at Oxford University material science department, went on to do a PhD in jet engine alloys and am now professor of materials and society and director of the Institute of Making at University College London. On my journey I have found a hidden world of makers who create the stuff on which we all rely, from aircraft manufacturers to clothing makers. Materials are at the heart of every company I visit and it is hard not to conclude that although Google and Twitter may dominate technology headlines, and cosmologists may be most popular with the media, materials transformation is still what makes the world go

around.

我對(duì)材料的癡迷是從十幾歲開(kāi)始的。我對(duì)他們的默默無(wú)聞感到困惑，因?yàn)樗麄兙驮谖覀冎車(chē)Ｓ卸嗌偃四芸闯鲣X和鰻魚(yú)的區(qū)別？樹(shù)林明明各不相同，可又有幾個(gè)人能說(shuō)出為什么呢？Plast ics比較混亂；誰(shuí)知道聚乙烯和聚丙烯的區(qū)別？最終，我獲得了牛津大學(xué)材料科學(xué)系的學(xué)位，繼續(xù)攻讀噴氣發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)合金博士學(xué)位，現(xiàn)在是倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院材料與社會(huì)教授和制造學(xué)院院長(zhǎng)。在我的旅程中，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)隱藏的制造商的世界，他們制造我們所有人都依賴(lài)的東西，從飛機(jī)制造商到服裝制造商。材料是我訪(fǎng)問(wèn)的每家公司的核心，很難不得出這樣的結(jié)論:盡管谷歌和推特可能占據(jù)技術(shù)頭條，宇宙學(xué)家可能最受媒體歡迎，但材料變革仍然是世界運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)的動(dòng)力。

Starting next week in a new ries of columns for Obrver Tech Monthly I am going to tell the story of stuff. Each month I will pick a different material and uncover the human needs and desires that brought it into being, and decode the materials science and engineering behind it. Along the way, we will find that the real differences between materials are deep below the surface, a world that is shut off from most unless they have access to sophisticated scientific equipment. So to understand materiality is necessarily a journey into the inner space of materials. Pretty much the whole of materials science is concerned with the microscopic worlds. Doing so explains why some materials smell and others are odourless; why some can last for 1,000 years and others crumble in the sun; how some glass can be bulletproof, while a wine glass shatters at the slightest impact. The journey into this microscopic world reveals the science behind our food, our clothes, our gadgets, our jewellery, and of cour our bodies.

從下周開(kāi)始，在《觀察者科技月刊》的一系列新專(zhuān)欄中，我將講述這個(gè)故事。每個(gè)月，我都會(huì)挑選一種不同的材料，揭示人類(lèi)的需求和欲望，并解碼材料科學(xué)和工程來(lái)找到它。在這個(gè)過(guò)程中，我們會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)材料之間的真正區(qū)別是在表面以下很深的地方，一個(gè)與大多數(shù)人隔絕的世界，除非他們能夠接觸到復(fù)雜的科學(xué)設(shè)備。因此，理解物質(zhì)性必然是一次進(jìn)入物質(zhì)內(nèi)部空間的旅程。幾乎整個(gè)材料科學(xué)都與微觀世界有關(guān)。這樣做解釋了為什么有的物質(zhì)有氣味，有的物質(zhì)無(wú)氣味；為什么有些能持續(xù)1000年，而另一些卻在陽(yáng)光下崩潰；一些玻璃是如何防彈的，當(dāng)阿樂(lè)的酒杯在輕微的撞擊下破碎。進(jìn)入這個(gè)微觀世界的旅程揭示了我們的食物、衣服、小玩意、珠寶背后的科學(xué)，當(dāng)然還有我們的靈魂。

Take for example, a piece of thread, which exists at the same scale as hair. It is a synthetic

structure at the limit of our eyesight that has allowed us to make ropes, blankets, carpets, but most importantly, clothes. Textiles are one of the earliest synthetic materials; when we wear a pair of jeans we are wearing a miniature woven structure, the design of which is older t

han Stonehenge. Clothes have kept us warm and protected for all of recorded history, as well keeping us fashionable. But they are hi-tech too. In the 20th century we learnt how to make space suits from textiles strong enough to protect astronauts on the moon as well as solid textiles for artificial limbs called carbon fibre composites.

舉個(gè)例子，一根線(xiàn)，和頭發(fā)同尺度存在。它是一種合成結(jié)構(gòu)，在我們的視覺(jué)極限下，它讓我們可以制作繩子、毯子、地毯，但最重要的是，衣服。紡織品是最早的合成材料之一；當(dāng)我們穿著一條牛仔褲時(shí)，我們穿的是一個(gè)微型編織結(jié)構(gòu)，其設(shè)計(jì)是古老的漢巨石陣。在所有有記錄的歷史中，衣服讓我們保持溫暖和受保護(hù)，就像我們讓我們保持時(shí)尚一樣。但他們也是高科技。在20世紀(jì)，我們學(xué)會(huì)了如何用足夠堅(jiān)固的紡織品制造宇航服，既能保護(hù)月球上的宇航員，又能制造用于假肢的固體紡織品，稱(chēng)為碳纖維復(fù)合材料。

But there is more to materials than the science. Tho who make things all have a different understanding of the practical, emotional and nsual aspect of their materials. For instance, we know the sounds of the doors in our hous, and can distinguish between someone leaving or entering from the subtle differences in keys rattling and hinges creaking. As a child

I could always tell whether it was my mother or my father coming up the stairs, from the subtle differences in the sound of the creaky stairs. The acoustic personalities of buildings are

often overlooked during the design process. Carpet makes a room feel warmer but also changes the acoustic signature of the room. The clickity-clack of high heels and the party they announce are muted; the squeak of rubber tennis soles and the sport they anticipate is banished; the comforting solid thump of nsible shoes on their way to work is no longer proclaimed. Installing carpet is a kind of auditory gag, which may of cour be ud intentionally for that purpo such as when designers want to create a n of intimacy and calm. It is this diversity of material knowledge that I intend to capture in the columns.

但是材料不僅僅是科學(xué)。那些制作東西的人對(duì)他們材料的實(shí)用性、情感和感官方面都有不同的理解。例如，我們知道房子里門(mén)的聲音，并能從鑰匙發(fā)出的咔嗒聲和鉸鏈發(fā)出的吱嘎聲的細(xì)微差別中辨別出有人進(jìn)來(lái)還是出去了。小時(shí)候，我總能從樓梯嘎吱作響的細(xì)微差別中分辨出是我媽媽還是我爸爸上樓來(lái)了。在設(shè)計(jì)過(guò)程中，建筑的這些聲學(xué)特征經(jīng)常被忽視。地毯讓房間感覺(jué)更溫暖，但也改變了房間的聲學(xué)特征。高跟鞋的咔嗒咔嗒聲和他們宣布的派對(duì)都是無(wú)聲的；橡膠網(wǎng)球的吱吱聲和他們期待的運(yùn)動(dòng)被摒棄了；明智的鞋子在上班路上發(fā)出的舒適而堅(jiān)實(shí)的撞擊聲不再被宣揚(yáng)。安裝地毯是一種聽(tīng)覺(jué)上的惡作劇，當(dāng)然也可能是有意為之，比如當(dāng)設(shè)計(jì)師想要?jiǎng)?chuàng)造一種親密和平靜的感覺(jué)時(shí)。正是這種材料知識(shí)的多樣性，我打算在這些專(zhuān)欄中加以總結(jié)。

Becau materials are built from atoms, we cannot avoid talking aboutthe rules that govern them, which are described by quantum mechanics. This means that as we enter the atomic world, we must abandon commonn, and talk instead of wave functions and electron states. More materials are being designed from scratch at this scale, and can perform emingly impossible tasks. Silicon chips designed using quantum mechanics have already brought about the information age. Silicon is now changing the way we light our homes (light emitting diodes) and harvest energy from the sun (solar cells).

因?yàn)椴牧鲜怯稍訕?gòu)成的，我們不能避免談?wù)撝渌鼈兊囊?guī)則，這些規(guī)則是由量子力學(xué)描述的。這意味著當(dāng)我們進(jìn)入原子世界時(shí)，我們必須放棄常識(shí)，轉(zhuǎn)而談?wù)摬ê瘮?shù)和電子態(tài)。越來(lái)越多的材料正以這種規(guī)模從零開(kāi)始設(shè)計(jì)，可以完成看似不可能的任務(wù)。使用量子力學(xué)設(shè)計(jì)

的硅片已經(jīng)帶來(lái)了信息時(shí)代。硅現(xiàn)在正在改變我們照亮家園(發(fā)光二極管)和從太陽(yáng)(太陽(yáng)能電池)獲取能量的方式。

The central idea behind materials science is that changes at invisibly small scales manifest

themlves as changes in a material behaviour at the human scale. It is this process that our

ancestors stumbled upon to make bronze and steel, even though they did not have the microscopes to e what they were doing – an amazing achievement. When you hit a piece of

metal you are not just changing its shape, you are changing the inner structure of the metal, which is why metals get harder when you hit them. Our ancestors knew this from experience but didn’t know why. Nevertheless this gradual accumulation of knowledge got us to the 20th century before any real appreciation of the structure of materials was understood. In the columns I will be championing this skill of making. This is not just becau it is the hallmark of human civilisation but becau the deindustrialisation of the developed world has devalued making.

材料科學(xué)背后的中心思想是，無(wú)形小尺度的變化表現(xiàn)為人類(lèi)尺度的材料行為的變化。我們的祖先就是在這個(gè)過(guò)程中偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)制造青銅和鋼鐵的，盡管他們沒(méi)有麥克風(fēng)和顯微鏡來(lái)觀察他們?cè)谧鍪裁础@是一個(gè)驚人的成就。當(dāng)你擊中一塊金屬時(shí)，你不僅改變了它的形狀，你還改變了金屬的內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)，這就是為什么當(dāng)你擊中金屬時(shí)，金屬會(huì)變得更硬。我們的祖先從經(jīng)驗(yàn)中知道這一點(diǎn)，但不知道為什么。盡管如此，這種知識(shí)的逐漸積累讓我們來(lái)到了20世紀(jì)，才真正理解了材料的結(jié)構(gòu)。在專(zhuān)欄中，我將支持這種制作技巧。這不僅僅是因?yàn)樗侨祟?lèi)文明的標(biāo)志，也是因?yàn)榘l(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家的去工業(yè)化摧毀了制造業(yè)。

Making is not just an economic activity, it is the equal of literature, performance or mathematics as a form of human expression. By eschewing material knowledge we cea to understand the world around us. We wring our hands about climate change or urban sprawl without any recognition that our ignorance of materiality might be the cau. We feel proud of the technological marvel that is a smartphone, and yet we upgrade – ditch one for a newer

model – at the first opportunity. We may assuage our conscience by hoping that they are recycled with some technology equal in sophistication to their fabrication techniques but they

are not; most are dispod of in industrial blenders.

制作不僅僅是一種經(jīng)濟(jì)活動(dòng)，它相當(dāng)于文學(xué)、表演或數(shù)學(xué)作為人類(lèi)表達(dá)的一種形式。通過(guò)回避物質(zhì)知識(shí)，我們停止了對(duì)周?chē)澜绲睦斫狻Ｎ覀儗?duì)氣候變化或城市擴(kuò)張束手無(wú)策，卻沒(méi)有意識(shí)到我們對(duì)物質(zhì)性的忽視可能是原因。我們?yōu)橹悄苁謾C(jī)這一技術(shù)奇跡感到自豪，但我們一有機(jī)會(huì)就升級(jí)——放棄一款，改用新型號(hào)。我們可以通過(guò)希望它們用一些與它們的制造技術(shù)同等復(fù)雜的技術(shù)進(jìn)行循環(huán)來(lái)減輕我們的良心，但它們不是；大多數(shù)在工業(yè)攪拌機(jī)中處理。

The ages of civilisation are named after materials precily becau they transformed and

shaped society. By distancing ourlves from the act of making,by buying and consuming stuff but never having any experience of their manufacture, the developed world finds itlf not to be the illiterate society that education ministers fear, but an unmakerly society. In my view this practical ignorance is every bit as dangerous to a modern democracy as a lack of literacy. By swapping a material and industrial understanding of the world for one bad on facts and information, we find ourlves uncivilid in a different way.

文明時(shí)代正是以物質(zhì)命名的，因?yàn)樗鼈兏淖兒退茉炝松鐣?huì)。通過(guò)與制造行為保持距離，通過(guò)購(gòu)買(mǎi)和消費(fèi)圣烏夫但從未有任何制造經(jīng)驗(yàn)，發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家發(fā)現(xiàn)自己不是教育部長(zhǎng)們所害怕的文盲社會(huì)，而是一個(gè)不道德的社會(huì)。在我看來(lái)，這種實(shí)際上的無(wú)知對(duì)現(xiàn)代民主來(lái)說(shuō)就像缺乏活力一樣危險(xiǎn)。通過(guò)把對(duì)世界的物質(zhì)和工業(yè)理解換成基于fac ts和信息的理解，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己

以不同的方式不文明。

This ries of columns won’t be an exhaustive survey of materials, nor a catalogue of the

most important ones. But I will aim to capture the fabric of our lives through materiality. After all, everything is made of something.

這一系列專(zhuān)欄不會(huì)是對(duì)材料的詳盡調(diào)查，也不會(huì)是最重要的材料的目錄。但我的目標(biāo)是通過(guò)物質(zhì)性來(lái)捕捉我們生活的結(jié)構(gòu)。畢竟，一切都是由某種東西構(gòu)成的。