Every technology you use — the battery in your phone, the chip that runs it, the cloud that stores your photos — is ultimately a story about materials. Matter Decoded tells those stories without the jargon: how things work, why they fail, and what has to happen before the next breakthrough reaches you.
Who writes this
I’m Shashi Adiga, a materials scientist with a Ph.D. and more than 20 years leading research and development in industry and national labs, at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Lockheed Martin, Kodak, Shell and Argonne National Laboratory. My work has spanned energy storage, semiconductors and, more recently, AI-driven materials design. I also co-founded eQube, a battery start-up.
Along the way I’ve used molecular simulations and machine learning to design materials that don’t exist yet, from silicon–germanium superlattices tuned for heat flow to deep-learning frameworks for inverse design. I’ve also spent enough time on the industrial side to know that a result in a journal is a long way from a product on a shelf.
Why this site exists
Most coverage of new technology lands at one of two extremes: hype-filled headlines, or papers only specialists can read. Matter Decoded sits in between. Each article takes a real piece of research, explains the science in plain language, and then asks the question that matters: is it ready, and if not, what’s standing in the way?
What you’ll find here
- Explainers on how a technology works, from the atoms up.
- Reality checks on headline breakthroughs: cost, scale, reliability and the other hurdles between lab and market.
- Where things are heading, including how AI is changing the way new materials are discovered.
A note on accuracy
I link to the original research in every article. If you spot an error, tell me and I’ll correct it with a note.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections or a topic you’d like decoded? Send me a message or email admin@matterdecoded.com.