1. *Departement de philosophie, Universite de Paris X, 200 avenue de la republique, 92001, Nanterre, France. This work was supported by a Fellowship of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology. I would like to thank Arne Hessenbruch and Christophe Lecuyer for comments.
2. 1 National Academy of Sciences. Committee on the Survey of materials science and engineering (COSMAT), Materials and man's needs(Washington, D.C., 1975), vol. 1, 3-1.
3. 2
4. Ibid. s1, 3.
5. The same report defined MSE (s2, 2): "Materials science and engineering is concerned with the generation and application of knowledge relating to composition, structure, and processing of materials to their properties and uses."