"Find a material with novel properties and then search out uses for it". For most industries, this is cart before the horse, but for the Materials Science indus

"Find a material with novel properties and then search out uses for it". For most industries, this is cart before the horse, but for the Materials Science industry, they have made a living out of it for well over a century. It is the reason why you can buy sandpaper, carwash soap, sticky notes, and bullet-proof vests from the same company (in this example, 3M, but there are dozens of successful Materials Science megacorps). When you see stuff like this coming out of Academia, it is usually no different than the bajillions of articles out there about some novel new way to fight cancer. Someone found something interesting, and they are trying to sell the IP.