Wonderful World of Friction, the first Chinese monograph dedicated to popularize tribology, was published by the Science Press recently. It is complied by CUI Haixia, CHEN Jianmin and ZHOU Huidi from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the CAS.

The monograph can serve as the extracurricular reading material for youngsters in middle school or above. It can also be used as a sparetime reference book for science fans.

In order to help readers understand tribology better, the writers, starting from Suirenshi’s making fire by drilling wood and the construction of pyramids in Egypt, introduce the history, current and future trend of human’s study and application of friction.

The monograph contains eight chapters, namely Historical Narratives of Friction, Friction in Daily Life, Enter into World of Friction, Various Lubricating Materials, Long Existing Lubricating Oil and Grease, Prosperous Solid Lubricating Materials, Powerful Surface Engineering Technology and Challenges on Tribology.

Through reading the book, the readers will get to know how human discovered and applied friction via practice, and the past, present and future of tribology as a subject.

The work has received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and compliments from famous tribology experts in China.

Prof. XUE Qunji, member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and expert in material chemistry and lubricating materials in China, made a comment on the book. He held that the language of the book was lively and interesting and the content is abundant. The explanation of the tribology theory is simple to understand. It could be helpful to popularize tribology science in China.

Background information:

Friction is a common physical phenomenon. It is closely related to people’s life. Tribology is a science and technology subject to study the theory and practice of interacting surfaces in relative motion, whose principal subjects investigated include friction, lubrication and wear commonly existing in nature. It is an interdiscipline involving physics, chemistry, material science, mechanics, mechanical engineering, calculation science, informatics, biology, etc.

It aims to save energy and resource, protect environment and raise the quality of life.

Tribology is related to numerous areas of national economy. It has been making significant contributions to solve problems faced by China in resource, energy and environment.