History is replete with examples of the enormous impact of data compilations in all fields of science and technology. The advantages and opportunities such aggregations confer include:• convenience of access,• condensation and homogenization of raw data,• formats tailored for the application,• perception of patterns,• detection of errors,• definition of gaps and inconsistencies, and• basis for formulating and testing theories.The opportunities in materials science, and specifically in the subfield of alloy design, are no fewer than in other fields of science. Indeed, as I have remarked in a review of the history of the development of understanding and application of intermetallic compounds, breakthroughs in this field have usually come about not from “a new technique, a unique experimental observation, or an abstruse theory… Rather it was the amassing of a critical volume of experimental data in the literature which permitted an individual with great insight to perceive an underlying pattern not previously apparent.”
Structural intermetallic compounds.
