Every day we encounter a diversity of materials: liquids, glass, ceramics, metals, crystals, magnets, plastics, semiconductors, foams, … These materials look and feel different from one another. Their physical properties vary significantly: are they soft and squishy or hard and rigid? Shiny, black, or colourful? Do they absorb heat easily? Do they conduct electricity? The distinct physical properties of different materials are central to their use in technologies around us: smartphones, alloys, semiconductor chips, computer memories, cooking pots, magnets in MRI machines, LEDs in solid state lighting, and fibre optic cables. Consequently, the science of materials attracts researchers in a wide range of disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and the varieties of engineering (electrical, chemical, mechanical, material…). But why do different materials have different physical properties?
There are more than one hundred different types of atoms, or chemical elements, in the universe. Any material is composed of a specific collection of different atoms, and they are arranged in a particular spatial pattern within the material. A central question is:
How are the physical properties of a material related to the properties of the atoms from which the material is made?
Extract from Chapter 1, Condensed Matter Physics: A Very Short Introduction
