Dean J. Campbell, Julie K. Lorenz, Arthur B. Ellis, Thomas F. Kuech, George C. Lisensky, and M. Stanley Whittingham Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
When initially asked to prepare this Viewpoints piece on materials science, we selected the computer for the story line because of the breadth of materials it encompasses and its profound effect upon our lives. In no way, however, were we prepared for just how rapidly the materials and technologies associated with this remarkable tool are changing. During the four months over which this article was written - from our initial outline in August 1997 until the time it was completed in December 1997 - it seemed that each time we developed a draft, a new technology was announced: IBM, for example, trumpeted a shift from aluminum to copper conductors in integrated circuits and introduced new magnetic read heads based on the giant magnetoresistance phenomenon during this period. Both of these advances will lead to faster, more powerful computers. Thus, writing this article has given us a distinctly unsettling but nonetheless exhilarating sense of how rapidly materials science is moving. We will not be surprised if, by the time you read this article, some of the materials and processes described will already have been outperformed and displaced, as suggested by the logarithmic plots that dot the landscape of this article. But what we hope will be conveyed is the breakneck pace at which this field is moving, and the vast potential and excitement it holds for all of us.
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