97: From The Mandalorian’s Beskar to Thor’s Hammer: MSE in Pop Culture (ft. Dr Suveen Mathaudhu)

It's a Material World | Materials Science Podcast

In today’s episode, we welcome Dr Suveen Mathaudhu, an expert metallurgist with nearly 20 years of metals processing experience. With him, we discuss:

🔹️An important material in the show is beskar, which is described as a super-strong and lightweight metal for armor or weapons. Describe the other ties that beskar has to historic real-life materials (cultural, scientific, etc.)?

🔹️Break down how these three aspects:(1) difficulty in processing such a strong material, (2) the idea that a pure metal is stronger than an alloy, and (3) its resistance to lightsabers & blaster bolts, could be explained using materials science.

🔹What sort of impact The Armorer character will have in both media and STEM itself?

🔹Advice for students that want to improve their ability to use pop culture to disseminate / teach materials science to diverse crowds.

🔹And much more!

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#materialsscience #beskar #thor #popculture #thorshammer