Langer: new materials – polymers – that could go inside the body. Tomorrow’s World: A Horizon Special, BBC 2013
Throughout history humankind has struggled to understand the fundamental workings of the material world. We’ve endeavoured to discover the rules and patterns that determine the qualities of the objects that surround us, and their complex relationship to us and each other. Over thousands of years societies all over the world have found that one discipline above all others yields certain knowledge about the underlying realities of the physical world. That discipline is mathematics. Professor Marcus du Sautoy, The Story of Maths I, BBC 2008
I have never been a material girl. My father always told me never to love anything that cannot love you back. Imelda Marcos
The real reason of the difficulty is that the raw materials that were created for the use and benefit of all have been stolen by a small number, who refuse to allow the majority to work and produce the things they need. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
It’s called the materials economy. I looked into it a little more, in fact I spent ten years travelling the world tracking where our stuff comes from, and where it goes … It’s a system in crisis. The Story of Stuff, 2007
We are running out of resources. We are using too much stuff. ibid.
My country’s response to this limitation is simply to go take somebody else’s. ibid.
Toxics in, toxics out. ibid.
We have more stuff but less time for the things that make us happy. ibid.
Recycling will never be enough. ibid.
We can now create a substance called Metamaterials that bend microwaves ... Soon we will be able to do the same thing with visible light. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science s1e5: Physics of the Impossible: How to Become Invisible, Science 2009
I’m a simple man, and I use simple materials. L S Lowry