About the book: year / Even in the first decades of our century, answers to questions about the properties of materials were sought in experiment. And only in the last 40 years have scientists, specialists in the field of materials science, begun to seriously study the structure of materials, making sure that their properties depend on the perfect arrangement of atoms. The author of the book, a professor at the University of Reading (UK), James Edward Gordon, talks about all this vividly and with humor. The book is intended not only for schoolchildren and students, but also for those who, by the nature of their work, are interested in the behavior of modern materials and the strength of structures.