Applications are invited for full-time, continuing academic positions in a number of areas in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University Sarawak.

Please see website for information : www.curtin.edu.my

It broke in the weekend when I was enjoying the footie on TV with a pack of crisps.

This isn't the first time a tooth filling has broken on me, but this one has got me worried, because I called my dentist today and found out that because he is moving premises, he is not open until the middle of next week.

Which made me think why my filling broke in the first place.  Years ago, we were told not to eat immediately after getting our filling done.  Somehow technology has caught up and with new materials and better understanding of the development of stresses in the filling [e.g. 1-4], I now have fillings that look like a real tooth and without having the need to wait for hours before enjoying my solid foods again. 

Foods are good examples of composite materials that everyone can relate to.  From foams like ice creams to emulsions like spreads to hydrogels like jams to viscoelastic solids like cheese to porous, brittle solids like crisps, the properties of these multiphasic, heterogeneous materials are most important in the mouth where they are broken down via mechanical, chemical or thermal means.  Unlike many structural materials where the design strategy is to achieve the highest strength or toughness, foods are designed to break down in a particular manner and only under particular conditions.  A nice mechanics challenge for those who like to use the mouth as a measurement tool.

I once came across a novel which contains the following (verbatim) :

Laplace had once prepared a paper for the Academie, claiming that it would be possible to predict the outcome of a game of dice if one had precise knowledge of every factor, such as the weight of the die, the exact way in which the hand moved, the strength of that hand, and the force of each throw.

Now I have forgotten the title of the novel nor its author, and neither do I know if Laplace really said these words (from the internet I gather that discussion about God and dice is accredited to Einstein or Hawking).