ferrite does not like foreign atoms

Tags: ferrite, steel

An example of anthropomorphism in public science discourse:

"…If you cool so rapidly that there is no possibility of a composition change, because, you know, normally it is not just iron, but it is a mixture of many different things, you cool it rapidly, so that there is no diffusion at all, no chaotic movement of atoms…it inherits the chemical composition of the high temperature phase. It does not like those atoms, foreign atoms, but it is forced to inherit them."

Professor Sir Harry Bhadeshia

Professor Sir Harry Bhadeshia (Emeritus Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge; Professor of Metallurgy, Queen Mary University of London) was interviewed on an episode ('Sir Harry Bhadeshia on the choreography of metals') of BBC's The Life Scientific

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Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.