CONSIDERATIONS IN THE DESIGN OF NEW MATERIALS

The development of new materials is governed by the current societal need and availability of resources. However, the adoption of a material depends primarily on its cost, which is even observed by changes in the chemical makeup of currencies through the years. Coins currently comprise worthless ferrous alloys rather than high concentrations of metals such as gold, silver, copper, and nickel that comprised early coins. When a new technology or material is introduced, there is almost always a high price associated with its adoption. For example, consider the cost of computers and plasma televisions when they first became available - worth tens of thousands of dollars  

The market price of a device is governed by the costs of its subtmits. Shortly after the invention of germanium-based transistors in the late 1940s, the price of an individual transistor was approximately US 8-10. However, as germanium was substituted with sihcon, and fabrication techniques were improved, the price of these materials has exponentially decreased to its current price of one-miUionth of a penny This has allowed for an unprecedented growth in computational expediency, without a concomitant increase in overall price. 

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