Rare Bird, Inc. | Articles : Strange Matter

	Web Reviews From 1997 to the present, President/Creative Director, Jim Cota has been writing informative reviews of Web sites and other internet related issues for the Indianapolis Business Journal. If you've missed the articles in print you can catch up on past stories here. Articles are reprinted with permission of the Indianapolis Business Journal, copyright 1997 - 2005, IBJ Corp.

Crush, Manipulate, Investigate Stuff with Strange Matter

I told a friend recently that I’ve only read two books so far this year that I think everyone should read. One is “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson. Bryson wrote this book because it occurred to him one day that he “didn’t know the first thing about the only planet he was ever going to live on.” The book is a fascinating collection of astounding facts about the world around us. At several points while I read, I found myself truly mystified about the things I was learning; some of which were decidedly simple concepts which I had just failed to consider. Things like this little tidbit: "It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you." Creepy, but fascinating.

Anyway, reading this book has caused me to look at everything slightly differently than before. Which eventually led me to a web site that is dedicated to that very thing. Strange Matter is a site detailing the findings of materials science, the field of science dedicated to the study of everyday stuff. Now, you might think that we know all there is to know about stuff. And in some ways, we do. There are about 300,000 known materials (a number growing daily due to work in labs around the world), and all are either natural substances like metals, wood, or silicon; or man-made ones like plastics, polymers, carbon composites, and the science-fiction-like, gravity-defying aerogels. Strange Matter details them all.

The site is divided into four main sections where you can Zoom, Transform, Crush, or Improve stuff. Zooming allows you to start at a normal view of an item, like a soft drink can, and zoom all the way down to it’s atomic structure. (Did you know that you’d need to line up one million aluminum atoms to match the width of a human hair?) At each step of the magnification, the site offers detailed information to get down and dirty with the material. It’s very cool.

Transform lets you see how basic materials are combined to create something new. For instance, you can walk through the step-by-step process to see how sand becomes a cell phone.

Crush gives you the power to take part in a Materials Smackdown, pitting two materials in a head-to-head test of strength.

Improve takes you behind the scenes to see how materials science is working to make the world a better place to live, from improving equipment to fighting cancer to saving the environment.

There are additional areas of the site dedicated to helping families make the most of the information provided, and a Teachers Section with a wealth of information teachers can put to work in their classrooms: teaching guides, classroom demonstrations, curriculum connections, and a list of valuable resources.

Most of the material is intended for grades 5 - 8, but I’ve found it can be interesting and fun for nearly any age. The site is well-designed and uses a good mix of technology to display the information. The companion exhibit, on display until January 2004 at the Ontario Science Centre, is a fascinating hands-on experience designed to give your kids a close encounter with amazing world of materials science.