• BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      There are materials possible that will completely change the world.

      Theres probably a room temperature superconductor for example.

      The number of possibilities is effectively infinite though, since its not just which atoms, but also how they’re arranged.

        • Fondots@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          There was one team fairly recently that thought they had developed one that got a lot of press, but it turned out to not be true.

          But that was only for that one specific case, it didn’t prove that room temperature superconductors can’t exist in general, there are still other teams working on developing them, and theoretically they could be possible, we just haven’t quite worked out what materials will exhibit superconductivity at room temperature, under what circumstances, and how to make them.

          And we have some materials that come pretty damn close, Lanthanum decahydride can exhibit superconductivity at temperatures just a few degrees colder than some home freezers can manage (although at very high pressures)

    • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      That’s why we name our ages after the materials within. Material science is the foundation for almost all other physical sciences.

        • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          We’re currently in the information age, which is due to silicon. In a few hundred years, this time may reasonably be called the silicon age. Society has only recently transferred to the silicon age from the previous iron age. If we don’t cause a total collapse of our society, then we will be in the silicon age for a few hundred more years, and that will likely include space colonization.

          The space age you’re referring to is likely the 60s, when space exploration was beginning. A decade or two isn’t long enough to be considered an age.

        • 9bananas@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          the information age is easy: the silicon age!

          not sure about the space age…maybe titanium age? that’s about the time we figured out how to machine titanium on large scales, and for highly specialized, extreme applications (talking about the SR-71 here, mostly). could also call it the alloy age, since a number of important alloys were discovered around that time

        • Gigasser@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          There’s the industrial age too. Which I guess you could also call “The Age of Steam” or “The Age of Coal” or some other thing.