Overlooked materials IRL

  • MachineMan
    8th Jan 2023 Member 0 Permalink

    I would like to commerate the 8 materials that are all taken for granted but make up our everyday life:  Metal, Wood, Plastic, Rubber, Glass, Fabric, Paper, and Concrete.  Interestingly all but 2 of them can be made by non-artificial means(though Wood is the only one of them can only be made by non-artificial means):

     

    • Metal is mined from underground (not made by nature so not natural, but also not made by humans so not artificial either).
    • Wood comes from trees and palm trees (palm trees are actually more closely related to ferns).
    • The weaving that makes up the cocoon of a bagworm (that's the moth equivalent of a caterpillar) is natural fabric and this in fact how silk is made (though the silk we use is harvested from domesticated insects so it's arguably artificial).
    • Paper can be made by wasps; whereas bees make honey, wasps make paper.
    • Rubber is the sap from rubber trees.
    • Natural glass occurs when lightning strikes sand on desert or beach (such glass is called fulgurite).

     

    Plastic and Concrete are the only 2 of these that can only be made by aritficial means (concrete; by definition, is artificial sedimentary rock).  I would have included masonary (the stuff of which bricks are made), but not too many buildings are made with bricks; most suburban houses are made of wood, while all urban skyscrapers are made of metal and concrete.

    Edited 2 times by MachineMan. Last: 9th Jan 2023