Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and
discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of
finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.
The intellectual origins of materials science stem from the Age of
Enlightenment, when researchers began to use analytical thinking from
chemistry, physics, and engineering to understand ancient, phenomenological
observations in metallurgy and mineralogy. Materials science still
incorporates elements of physics, chemistry, and engineering. As such, the
field was long considered by academic institutions as a sub-field of these
related fields.