ABSTRACT
Materials science and engineering is a continuously evolving and developing “eld. Materials are pervasive and all scientists (whether physicists, chemists, or geologists) and engineers (whether civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, or materials) deal with some type of material or other. Every aspect of our day-to-day life revolves around materials. In fact, the different periods of human civilization have been named after materials-stone, copper, bronze, iron, and so on. The present age can be most aptly named the silicon age.
