Friction is all around us. If there’s motion, there’s friction. Whether that motion is inside our bodies or celestial bodies in space, friction is present. I’m a tribologist- someone specializing in friction, wear, and lubrication of materials. I actually hadn’t heard of the field until I was about to start graduate school. As a mechanical engineer who also loves material science, tribology is a perfect marriage of my interests. After I became a tribologist, I realized that not only was friction omnipresent, it had a story to tell. From our instinctive manipulation of it to quantifying friction mathematically to trying to unwrap the mysteries of it at a quantum level, we have always been on a journey with friction.

It’s perhaps equally surprising and not surprising to realize that we instinctively manipulate friction all the time. We use carts with wheels to help move heavy objects. We buy new tires when our treads wear out so our cars grip the road better. Our cars use friction to stop. As a formalized science, “tribology” didn’t come to be until the 1960s. However, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks are filled with friction experiments, and we’ve been scientifically working towards understanding friction ever since. Our understanding of friction has led to more fuel-efficient cars, the enablement of the miniaturization of electronics, how we may control bacterial therapeutics via friction, and understanding how orbits are shaped by friction. For a niche science, tribology manages to connect a lot of dissimilar fields!

Perhaps most exciting to me is the possibility of using friction to tackle climate change. We have the opportunity to help reduce up to 20% of our global energy consumption by reducing friction in industries like transportation and manufacturing. I’m also amazed by the researchers who used friction to indirectly detect dark matter around black holes. The reach of friction is seemingly endless and that makes it incredibly powerful.

Ongoing thread. More from Jennifer R. Vail to follow.