‘Pearls of wisdom’ – thirty years of Materials Science and Technology

Abstract

January 2014 marks the start of the thirtieth year of Materials Science and Technology: our 'pearl' anniversary. We have ambitious plans, which I expand upon below, to mark this occasion by launching a series of commissioned issues on topics of current research interest. However, I offer first a few thoughts prompted by consideration of this anniversary.The immediate connotation that comes to mind is that of the 'pearls of wisdom' that are offered monthly to our readership. The origin of the phrase is not easy to find. It is clearly not from the book of Job, which states that 'No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies' (chap. 28). It appears to derive from 'The Task' by William Cowper (published 1781) -an extremely long work extolling the pastoral life and divided into six books. Somewhere in the middle of Book 3, 'The Garden', there is the couplet:But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies.This conjures up images of pearl divers plying their trade in the surf and sunny waters of the Far East: something that even James Bond tried, in 'You Only Live Twice'. For one 'M' character in IMMM, MST's parent Institute (of Materials, Minerals and Mining), the couplet could be regarded as describing (a rather exotic form of) mining. A more fanciful extrapolation might be made to the way in which our MST 'pearls of wisdom' are sought by 'information mining' through 'surfing' the internet.