Why Physical Materials Matter in a Digital Age

Speedy Summary

• The digital world dominates daily life, but materials remain fundamental for construction, energy, and technology.
• Materials science saw groundbreaking advancements in the 1920s with discoveries of energy bands and gaps between them, leading to technologies like transistors.
• Recent research suggests materials may have “quantum topography,” a subtle internal structure that influences their properties.
• Charting this quantum landscape for the first time could lead to transformative breakthroughs,including:

– Room temperature superconductors that enable zero-resistance electricity transmission and support green energy initiatives.
– Potential discovery of entirely new types of materials.

• The advances in quantum material research may signal an expansion rather than a retreat from the importance of physical substances.

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