163 questions about material science

1. Is there something interesting about this material?
2. Does this material look funny to you?
3. Do you know why this material appears the way it does?
4. If you were to destroy the material, what would be left?
5. If you were to cut it up into small pieces, would this material still be recogniseable?
6. Would you like to use this material for something?
7. Would other people like to use this material for something?
8. Can you imagine a world in which people might want to use this material for something?
9. What would it be like?
10. How did this material get here?
11. Where did you find this material?
12. What has happened to this material before it got here?
13. Who made this material?
14. Was this material useful to them when they had it?
15. What did they do with it?
16. Did this material cause them difficulties?
17. Where are they now?
18. Has the material changed since they had it?
19. Have they changed since they had it?
20. Why has this material lasted?
21. How will you look after the material?
22. Where will you keep the material?
23. How will you know when you find it again what it is?
24. What will you call the material now?
25. Will you try to find a new name for the material?
26. Will people understand why you think it is interesting?
27. Will they already know about the material?
28. How can you show them what you mean about the material?
29. Does the material connect with something they care about?
30. Could other people tell you something about this material?
31. If someone told you something about this material, would it enrich your experience?
32. What might they tell you about the material?
33. Have you come across this material before?
34. Is this material like anything that you have seen before?
35. Have you seen this material represented anywhere else?
36. When you saw the representation of this material, did you understand it?
37. Did it move you?
38. Why or why not?
39. Has something changed now that you have seen this material?
40. Do you think that you could represent the material better?
41. How will you share the material?
42. Will you take photos of the material?
43. What is the best light to use to take photos of the material?
44. Does the material look different under different conditions?
45. Does the material look different to different eyes?
46. If an animal saw the material, would they have a different experience?
47. Do animals ever see this material?
48. How do animals react to the material when they see it?
49. Does the material look different from different distances?
50. If you look at the material on a very small scale, does it look different?
51. Is the shape of the material different on a very small scale?
52. Do the finest details of the material contain secrets?
53. Has anyone ever thought about the finest details of this material?
54. How should we capture the material in order to look at its smallest details?
55. Can we capture the impression of the material on another substance?
56. Can we trap the material inside resin (like Damien Hurst’s shark)?
57. What will change about the material when it is stuck in resin?
58. When this material is immersed in another material, will anything dissolve from it?
59. Would another material infiltrate into the inner space of this material?
60. How long will it take for the other material to infiltrate inside?
61. How much of the other material will enter inside this material?
62. How much of the original material is forced out by the infiltration
63. If other materials entered into this material, would this material change?
64. Can we notice how it would change? Would there be any external effect?
65. If we slice a cross-section through this material, will it break?
61. By slicing through the middle of this material, will we learn something new?
62. By exposing the inner structure of this material, will we see patterns?
63. Will the patterns inside this material explain how it appears on the outside?
64. Will the patterns be very neat?
65. Might the patterns be an accident caused by the way we prepared the material?
66. Might the patterns be a figment of our imagination?
67. Have we found a pattern here only because we wanted to see one?
68. How sure am I that we will find a pattern inside the material?
69. If I can’t find a pattern inside the material, have I missed the point?
70. Have I accidentally broken the pattern in the material by preparing it?
71. Have I touched the material too much?
72. Have I been too careless with the material?
73. Does the material naturally decay over time?
74. Can I do anything to enhance the contrast between different parts inside the material?
75. Can I stain the material so that some parts stand out?
76. Which parts of the material should I highlight?
77. Are these parts easy to highlight?
78. By highlighting these parts of the material, what is now visible that wasn’t before?
79. How much of the material is made up of this part?
80. What are the shapes that this material makes and are there patterns?
81. What is the rest of the material made of?
82. Have I overemphasised this part of the material?
83. Has the distinction I’ve applied to this part of the material leaked out into the rest of the material and blurred the boundaries in what I was trying to look for?
84. Is the slice of the material I’m looking at still whole?
85. Have some parts of the material broken off and been completely overlooked?
86. Am I imagining things?
87. What if I look even closer at the patterns, will I see other patterns?
88. What is the finest possible detail I can look at?
89. Might I accidentally see atoms?
90. How can I reliably look at the material on this small scale?
91. Will some parts of the material be invisible at this scale?
92. Will we still see the wood for the trees?
93. Would the material survive being in a vacuum?
94. Is the material dry?
95. Can the material be cut into a small enough piece to manipulate?
96. Can the material be stuck down firmly without too much interference with its surface?
97. Can the material be coated in gold or platinum?
98. Will the material be protected from the investigation by coating it with gold or platinum, or palladium?
99. Is the equipment to apply the protection to the material available and working?
100. Have we planned ahead to apply the coating?
101. How thick of a layer should we apply to the outside of the material, so that it will withstand the investigation, but we can still see it easily?
102. Has the coating been applied properly?
103. Does the material appear to be in tact?
104. When we look at the smallest details will we be distracted by random things that have nothing to do with the material?
105. Is this feature that seems so interesting just a distraction?
106. Is this distraction more interesting than the material itself?
107. Is there any reason that this random distraction is here?
108. Is the ‘random distraction’ actually in some way connected to the material?
109. By looking on the smallest scale, the material seems absolutely vast, and there is no chance of ever looking at every part, how then should we choose where to start?
110. When we are looking at such a small part, how will we find our way around?
111. How will we make sure that we don’t get lost?
112. How can we tell whether the features of one tiny detail are representative of the rest?
113. Do I think this detail is representative of the rest?
114. Looking at this detail, is it clear and in focus?
115. Can we focus better on this detail by spending more time trying?
116. As we spend more time looking at the detail, do we start to destroy it?
117. How can you tell that this detail is being destroyed?
118. What does it look like after you have destroyed it by focusing too much on one detail?
119. Can you move to another part of the material which is unaffected by that destruction?
120. How can you look quickly enough at the material that you don’t destroy it, but you manage still to see the details?
121. Aren’t these fine details beautiful?
122. Could you ever have known that these details would be here?
123. Do these fine details have anything in common with materials you have seen before?
124. Does understanding this detail change the way you think about the material?
125. How much time do we have to spend on the details of this material?
126. Have we got evidence of what we have understood from the details?
127. Does this image express something about the smallest features of the material?
108. Will people understand what we have discovered in the details by looking at the pictures we have made of them?
129. Is this the best composition of an image that we can make of this feature of the material?
130. Are there extraneous elements included in the composition which will distract people?
131. Is this image of the feature an honest depiction of what we have found?
132. Is this image of the feature well aligned and in focus?
133. Would I be happy publishing this image?
134. Does the scale bar on the image show well how big the feature is?
135. Have I recorded the relationship of the feature to the rest of the material?
136. Where is the feature with regard to other features of the material?
137. Would I expect to find the same features if I looked again at this material?
138. Will the coated material keep well?
139. Is it worth keeping this coated material in case I want to look at it again?
140. Where should I keep the coated material for long-term storage?
141. Can a thin layer be skimmed from the top of material?
142. Can the material be laid flat so that it doesn’t curl up?
143. Can the material be laid into water?
144. Is the material sturdy enough?
145. What does the original material look like under a strong light?
146. What does the material look like in front of a strong light?
147. Does the light come through the material?
148. How strong does the light have to be to go all the way through the material?
149. What colour is the material when the light comes through it?
150. What colour is the material when the light bounces off it?
151. If you shine too much light on the material, does it heat up? If the material heats up, does it change colour?
152. When you look at the material under a light, is the appearance dominated by the surface, or can you also see what’s going on underneath the surface?
153. Do you want to see the surface of the material or what’s happening underneath?
154. When you look at the surface, is it coloured, or is it just shapes?
155. Does the material show patterns on the surface, or is it smooth?
156. Are the colours in the material everywhere, or are they located only in one part?
157. Does the colour of the material change depending on how broad the illumination is?
158. Does the shape of the colour in the material change depending how much you focus on it?
159. Can you measure the appearance of the material quantitively?
160. Does the appearance of the material change depending from which direction you look at it?
162. How does it change?
163. Can you rotate the material?
164.

? Exchange “material” with “memory”, “beauty”, “experience”, “value”