THE CITY OF MATERIALS

Jordan Steel stared out the window of the family car. His eyes driftedback and forth between the tree-lined highway and the clouds in thesky. His head rested back against the headrest of the car. It seemed asif he had been in the car for years.

The summer had been winding to a close when Jordan and hisfamily had started their trip to the City of Materials. It was late Augustand still hot and humid when they arrived in their new hometown.

The City of Materials was set in a small valley surrounded bywooded hills in northeastern Ohio, about an hour east of Cleveland.It was very different from the near-desert conditions Jordan wasaccustomed to in Southern California. He had never seen so muchgreen grass and so many trees in his entire life. And it wasn't just thenumber of trees that amazed him but the variety, each with its owndifferent shade of green and leaf shape. The northeast corner of Ohiowas a very green and lush area with many old forests that dated backto before the Europeans had come to settle North America.

It had taken Jordan and his family a week to drive from SouthernCalifornia to northeast Ohio. The trip was long but fun, as the Steelfamily loved to travel in the car and had spent many trips exploringCalifornia this way. In the car with Jordan were his parents, Dante andEmily, and Joshua, his three-year-old brother. The final leg of theirjourney was to cross over the bridge in the southern part of the Cityof Materials.

"Remember what I told you about this bridge, Jordan?" askedDante.

Jordan remembered. This was the second bridge to be built acrossthe river to the City of Materials. The original bridge was built in theearly 1940s, using a slender ribbon bridge deck design, which wasinfluenced by the "streamlining" design approach that was popularat that time and had been applied to everything from teakettles tolocomotives, resulting in designs that are still admired today.

Unfortunately, the original bridge wasn't stable in the high windsthat sometimes occurred along the river that passed the City ofMaterials. The bridge's slender design acted like an airplane wing,which caused the roadbed to lift in the high winds and then twist asgravity brought it back down. Even during construction, the bridge wasseen to wiggle in the winds, and a local boy named William, who woulddance in time with the bridge, had earned the bridge the nickname"Wiggling William" from the local townspeople. The designer hadmade three separate and distinct efforts to dampen the movementsof the bridge, but all three efforts had failed. Within two months ofits opening, the bridge had collapsed in a spectacular fashion. Luckily,no loss of life had resulted, as the bridge slowly increased its wigglingover a period of hours, giving everyone time to get off the bridge.

A few years later, a new bridge had been built that wasn't slenderbut had a larger, more traditional structure under the roadbed. Itstood up to the winds and was still in use today.

"Hey, Jordan, what's this stuff on the bridge—the stuff that coversthe metal?" asked Emily.

Jordan sat up in the backseat and looked hard at the bridge as itsped past his window. The bridge was a gray color, and at first, Jordanthought that the gray was the color of the metal. As he looked harder,he saw that the "color" was chipping off in many spots. Jordan smiled."It's paint."

"That's correct," Dante said. "Can you tell me why the bridge ispainted?"

"Hmm ..." said Jordan. "I don't know."

"It's the same reason that we paint cars and pipes and many otherproducts made from carbon steel," Dante mentioned as a clue.

Jordan thought for a moment, and then his face lit up. Dante andEmily smiled together as the answer dawned on their son.

"The bridge is painted to stop corrosion," Jordan said proudly in aloud voice.

"Absolutely 100 percent correct," said Dante. "Did you know thatthe United States produces millions of tons of structural carbon steelevery year?" he added. "In 2008, the United States produced 91.4million metric tons, and the world production was 1,326.5 millionmetric tons. Most of the structures we see every day are made fromcarbon steel, but the steel will corrode if not protected. Painting is oneof the most common methods to protect carbon steel structures fromcorrosion.

"Say, Jordan, do you ever recall seeing another bridge that waspainted a spectacular color, like a bright orange?" Dante asked.

Jordan thought for a second and then remembered that thefamous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, was paintedan orange color. Jordan had seen the bridge up close a few years agowhen the family visited San Francisco.

"Remember what we learned about the bridge and how pretty it isin the sunlight, Jordan?" asked Emily.

Jordan thought back to the tour guide who had spoken to hisfamily about the bridge. The Golden Gate referred to the GoldenGate Strait, a name that originated around 1846. The bridge's mainsuspension span was 4,200 feet long—a world record that stoodfor twenty-seven years. It was still the second longest in the UnitedStates, with the longest bridge being the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge,which linked Staten Island to Brooklyn.

Jordan remembered that the two towers of the Golden GateBridge were 746 feet tall, which made them 191 feet taller than theWashington Monument. As they'd driven under the two towers,Jordan had thought they looked like two orange "Iron Giants." Thefive-lane bridge that crossed the Golden Gate Strait was about 1.7miles long and used simple yellow markers to switch the center laneso that three lanes of cars travel into San Francisco for the morningcommute and three lanes of cars leave the City in the afternoon andevening. Jordan had always thought this was a cool way to create a"changeable" carpool lane.

Dante interrupted Jordan's memories. "You know, in comparisonto structural carbon steel, the United States' production of stainlesssteel was 2.3 million metric tons in 2008, and the world production ofstainless steel was 25.9 million metric tons. That means that stainlesssteel is only about 2 percent of the amount of structural carbon steelproduced in the United States and the world."

"Hey, Jordan, what's this stuff—stainless steel?" asked Dante.

Jordan rolled his eyes. "Not again, Dad." Then, in a very roboticand well-rehearsed voice, he continued, "The advantage ofstainless steel is that it's corrosion resistant and doesn't need thesame corrosion protection required by structural carbon steels.The downside of stainless steel is its cost. The inherent corrosionresistance is due to the fact that it has a minimum of 11 percentchromium content by weight. The chrome content and other alloyingelements in the stainless steel cause it to cost more than structuralcarbon steel."

Dante smiled. "Well done, Jordan."

Emily broke in and said, "Enough already; you have himprogrammed like a robot."

"Robot?" asked Jordan. "What about robots?"

"Never you mind about robots, young man," said Emily. "You doenough with robots."

Jordan smiled.

Jordan was twelve years old and about to enter the seventh grade.He was tall for his age, just over five feet tall. He had a slim build andweighed over a hundred pounds, as he would proudly tell you. Hishair was light brown with just enough blond mixed in to make himlook almost blond during the summer months. His eyes were brownand seemed to lighten when he smiled. His mother would say theysparkled. And it was his smile that people noticed—not the large,full-teeth smile of Hollywood stars but a smaller smile, just slightlymore than a grin. His father would half-jokingly warn his mother thatJordan's smile would most surely get him into, and hopefully out of,trouble. Either way, Jordan's father was sure that he and his wife weregoing to have to deal with the consequences of that smile.

The family had spent the first part of the summer touring aroundSouthern California, visiting their favorite places and doing all theirfavorite things before heading east to make their new home in Ohio.The family found it hard to say good-bye to all their friends. This wasespecially true for Jordan, who had to leave both his friends fromschool and from the neighborhood. Jordan had many friends, as hewas trustworthy and a very likable person who got along well withmost people.

Jordan had reminded himself often, I will always be able to keepin touch with everyone through letters, phone calls, texts, e-mails, andsocial networks. However, the time to start the trip across the countryto their new home had arrived much too soon.

Jordan's mother and father loved to travel and to learn about theplaces they visited, so Jordan was given the task of learning aboutOhio before they left. As parents, they were hoping this small learningexperience would help Jordan with his transition to a new state, a newhome, and a new school. Jordan loved computers and was very skilledat using the Internet to discover information. During their car tripacross the United States from Southern California to northeast Ohio,Jordan's parents asked him questions about Ohio. Jordan would thenlook on his laptop or search the Internet to find the answers.

Dante was a metallurgical engineer. He performed failureinvestigations for a living, which meant he discovered why thingsfailed and then recommended ways to fix them so the failurewouldn't happen again. His new job was going to be at the GriffithCSI Laboratory in the northeast part of the City of Materials. Danteknew a lot about the science of failures, how to find their root cause,and the required solutions.

Before the cross-country trip, Dante and Emily had told Jordana lot about the City of Materials and had brought him pictures andmaps. As they crossed the bridge and headed down toward the city,Jordan could see that the City of Materials was laid out just as hisparents had described, in a wagon-wheel pattern, with the MaterialsCity Park in the middle as the hub. It somehow seemed bigger toJordan than the pictures had indicated. The park was also the hubof activity in the city, with forests, hiking trails, concerts during thesummer, and a popular information center.

"See the apple tree by the information kiosk, Jordan?" said Dante."That tree was grown from a splice from the original apple tree thatSir Isaac Newton was sitting under when he conceived the law ofgravity."

"No way!" exclaimed Jordan.

Emily then added, "A popular story has it that Newton was sittingunder an apple tree, an apple fell on his head, and he suddenlythought of the universal law of gravitation."

"Can we stop?" asked Jordan. "That's pretty cool."

"Not today, big guy. We need to get your little brother home andget settled into our new house. But I tell you what; we will take a littletour of the rest of the City of Materials."

Dante turned left and drove around the City of Materials in aclockwise direction. Leaving the park, they passed the Bain Library. "Ithas a great computer system with a search engine called the STEAM2system, Jordan," noted Dante.

Jordan looked up with a quizzical expression on his face. "Why isit called STEAM-Squared?"

Dante smiled. "It stands for the Science, Technology, Engineering,and Materials Management system. The two M's in a row make itSTEAM2, get it?"

Jordan nodded.

Emily added, "It's connected to every business and school intown, as well as libraries around the United States and around theworld. When I was here last time, I connected to the New Library ofAlexandria in Egypt to look at some papers on new medical research.In fact, the people in the City of Materials have an expression whenthey go to the library to research a problem. They say they are goingto STEAM the problem."

"Very cool," said Jordan.

Dante replied, "Not really cool, Jordan; STEAM2 is hot!"

Jordan groaned at his dad's bad joke. Emily and Dante smiled tosee Jordan interested in the new town.

They then passed Mayor Charpy's house, where Dane and Emilyhad met the mayor at a "Welcome to Town" social function a fewmonths earlier. "There he is now, walking his dog, Beaux-Bo," saidEmily.

Jordan looked to see a large, well-dressed man walking a largedog that appeared to be a cross between a pointer and retriever.He could not tell if the dog was white with black spots or black withwhite spots. The dog was very energetic and very friendly, sniffingeach person they met, wagging his tail, and looking very excited. Themayor was an older man with glasses but appeared to be in greatshape, as he briskly walked the dog toward the park.

Dante slowed the car down and pulled over to the curb. "Hello,Mayor," Emily said as she waved.

The mayor stopped; walked over to the curb; and, with a big smile,said, "Well, good afternoon to you two! Glad to see you have finallyarrived here in our little town. It's great to finally have you here." Themayor then looked in the backseat and said, "And these two finegentlemen must be Jordan and Joshua. Good afternoon, my youngsirs."

"Hello," replied Jordan.

Just then, Joshua looked at the mayor and said in a small voice,"Hello."

The mayor laughed a great laugh. "Well, I hope you both like ourtown. Come by for a snack if you have the time. Well, we must be off.Beaux-Bo and I never miss our afternoon walk." And away he went.

"I hope all is going well for the Inaugural Materials Ball inNovember!" yelled Emily as the mayor sped off.

He smiled, gave a big thumbs-up signal, and waved good-bye.

"Quite a personality, isn't he?" said Emily.

Dante replied, "I heard he has been in government work his wholelife. He was a bigwig in Washington, DC, and then retired here andbecame mayor. He has a real `open door' policy. He likes people tocome by and chat. He was also an amateur weightlifter. Did you seehow well he keeps physically active? He just doesn't seem able tostand still for too long."

Emily smiled at her husband and said, "Well, I know someone elsewho suffers from that problem."

Dante smiled back. "Guilty as charged."

Dante started up the car and passed Martens Hospital. New andspacious, this is where Jordan's mother, Emily, would be working as adoctor. Emily turned in her seat to look at Jordan. "I'm looking forwardto working here. This hospital has a very good reputation and getsmany new clinical trials."

Jordan knew that his mom liked clinical trials, which she'd oftenexplained were part of the process by which scientists researched anddeveloped drugs so that new and improved medicines would cure,combat, or prevent disease.

As they continued their drive clockwise around the city, theypassed the Modern Marvels Manufacturing Factory. "I heard they usethe latest and greatest manufacturing concepts for many differentproducts," Dante said. "It would be interesting to see what they havegoing on now."

Jordan looked at the large, gray buildings and wondered if anynew robotic products were being developed inside them.

The City of Materials Science Center in the west part of the citycame next. Emily pulled out a brochure the mayor had sent to them.She read, "Explore the materials of the past, present, and future. Thelatest exhibits include nanotechnology and samurai swords."

"What's this stuff, nanotechnology?" asked Jordan.

Dante answered, "Nanotechnology, or if you prefer the shortversion, nanotech, is the study and the control of matter on an atomicand molecular scale. The people involved with nanotechnology aretrying to create materials and devices of the size of one hundrednanometers or smaller. Nanotechnology is a very diverse andfascinating science."

"How big is a nanometer?" asked Jordan.

Emily looked back at him. "According this brochure, it's onebillionth of a meter. That's pretty small, right?"

"Yes," said Jordan, "I'd hate to drop some of those." Then Jordanasked, "What color are the nanos at the science center?"

Emily looked at Jordan with a quizzical expression. "What color arethe nanos?"

"Yeah, Dad always jokes that he has seen blue and red nanos andwants to see the green nanos."

Emily just smiled. "Your father was just pulling your leg; the nanoshave no colors."

"Aw, Dad!" Jordan said.

Dante winked at Jordan in the rearview mirror.

As the car passed the science center, Jordan noticed that thebuildings were completely enclosed by a large, open dome thatlooked like half of a soccer ball. "Wow, what's that?" asked Jordan.

Emily replied, "That's a geodesic dome, Jordan."