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@cstross So, I think you touched on this in your responses, but bumping: the central tenet of materials science is that the structure, properties, and process of materials are inextricably linked. You can 3D-print a steel katana to submicron precision, but without the forging process and its effects on the atomic level, it won’t *behave* like a katana. The same is true for the flimsiest of plastic shopping bags, with extrusion and alignment of polymer molecules.