Editing Materials science (section)

{{short description|Research of materials}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:Diamond cuboctahedron.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A [[diamond]] [[cuboctahedron]] showing seven [[crystallographic]] planes, imaged with [[scanning electron microscopy]]]]

[[File:Materials classification.svg|thumb|alt=Six classes of conventional engineering materials.|Six classes of conventional engineering materials]]

'''Materials science''' is an [[Interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinary]] field of researching and discovering [[material]]s. '''Materials engineering''' is an [[engineering]] field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.

The intellectual origins of materials science stem from the [[Age of Enlightenment]], when researchers began to use analytical thinking from [[chemistry]], [[physics]], and [[engineering]] to understand ancient, [[Empirical relationship|phenomenological]] observations in [[metallurgy]] and [[mineralogy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Matthew Daniel |url=https://www.academia.edu/1112014 |via=Academia.edu |title=The Language of Mineralogy: John Walker, Chemistry and the Edinburgh Medical School 1750–1800 |date=2008 |publisher=[[Ashgate Publishing]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903230852/http://www.academia.edu/1112014/The_Language_of_Mineralogy_John_Walker_Chemistry_and_the_Edinburgh_Medical_School_1750-1800_2008_ |archive-date=2015-09-03 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="smith">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Cyril Stanley |title=A Search for Structure |date=1981 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |isbn=978-0262191913 |author-link=Cyril Stanley Smith}}</ref> Materials science still incorporates elements of physics, chemistry, and engineering. As such, the field was long considered by academic institutions as a sub-field of these related fields. Beginning in the 1940s, materials science began to be more widely recognized as a specific and distinct field of science and engineering, and major technical universities around the world created dedicated schools for its study.

Materials scientists emphasize understanding how the history of a material (''processing'') influences its structure, and thus the [[Material properties|material's properties]] and performance. The understanding of processing -structure-properties relationships is called the materials paradigm. This [[paradigm]] is used to advance understanding in a variety of research areas, including [[nanotechnology]], [[biomaterial]]s, and [[metallurgy]].

Materials science is also an important part of [[forensic engineering]] and [[failure analysis]]{{snd}} investigating materials, products, structures or components, which fail or do not function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property. Such investigations are key to understanding, for example, the causes of various [[aviation accidents and incidents]].