Mark Eberhart

A primer on fracture mechanics, at the border of chemistry and physics. Eberhart explains grain boundaries, stacking-fault energy and Guassian curvature, and describes his own contributions to the field of materials design (the discovery of structure within the binding charge density), with interesting detours past ceramic hammers, the hydrogen fuel paradox, and winter in Boston.

Jack’s Abby Framing Hammer Baltic Porter
Bootlegger’s Golden Chaos Belgian Style Ale

I enjoyed most of this book. The author intersperses his career pathway with some history of materials science and design. The last three chapters were the densest and least-readable for me. A few diagrams or graphs would have helped hugely, but the book has no illustrations.

Rather eclectic book that interweaves the career trajectory of the author with a lot of technical information about the forces that hold materials together and what goes wrong when things break.

Riveting interpretation of evolution.