Strength of materials is one of the reasons that engineers have been able to build things higher, further, stronger, and able to withstand the incredible pressures of the deep ocean or internal pressures of space craft relative to their environment. For most of the last century it was all about metallurgy and the advances in the United States in metallurgy and material sciences blew the doors off the rest of the world.

Indeed, I've been very impressed with some of the work from a gentleman in OH with regards to hardening and quickly cooling for metals for super strength, specifically his awesome work in Titanium and exotic metals, it's something the US excels in and indeed. I wonder if the Chinese with their steel pipe may not be manufacturing their iron ore (less pure to begin with) when making pipe. You know this very much matters when drilling a mile–beneath the water, what 70,000 psi?

Well, it all matters when dealing with those types of pressures, your research is phenomenal and so important for the world. Have you kept up with the new materials and exotic alloys? I've been worried about all the Rare Earth Elements and the Chinese strangle hold on those, it could affect our militaries ability to manufacture equipment that can withstand the next generation of dreams to push the envelope! It's critical in my opinion.

Still, we are entering a new era, as in the last part of the last century we had done incredible things with plastics, composites and then nano–science. Today, we have not only incredible exotic metallic alloy blends, an extension of our uncanny ability to advance our theories in metallurgy, but we also have carbon nano–tubes, carbon nano–sheets, and graphene coatings. We've come a long way, but things are really starting to heat up, not only on the edge of our atmosphere, where we meet space, but also in the labs of the top material science facilities.

We are learning more and more each year about chemistry, nano–science, and particle physics – sometimes it seems there is no bounds to what we can build, we only need the innovative creative geniuses to ask the question and the rocket scientists and material scientists to make it happen. As we move into this future, we can expect cars that weigh under 500 lbs, and easily get 100 plus miles to the gallon. We will be able to build cities under the ocean, or colonies in space. It's time to boldly go!

Lance Winslow