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Discovery is half the battle. Theory plays a role. Currently there is some research into "high-entropy alloys" which are just mixtures of metals we've known ab
by scythe 7y ago
Discovery is half the battle. Theory plays a role.
Currently there is some research into "high-entropy alloys" which are just mixtures of metals we've known about for a while with certain special crystal properties. It's a foregone conclusion that many of the known HEAs could have been prepared in the 1930s, but would it make sense to do so? What epiphany could possibly tell you to prepare Cr19.75Mn20.10Fe20.25Co20.48Ni19.42 (Science 345 (6201) 1153-8) without having a theory of crystal deformation in metals?
- TeMPOraL 7y agoRadio comes to mind. All the physical pieces to make a working, if extremely limited and inefficient, radio communications system were there since forever. People knew how to make electric current since ancient times. An antenna is just a piece of twisted metal (and in a pinch, almost anything can work as an antenna). But to get from that to a wireless telegraph, you'd either need a lot of dumb luck, or some understanding of how electricity and magnetism behave.