“The String and Glue of our World” is a book about the science, engineering, history, and art of making things out of composites told in a manner that is hopefully approachable, engaging, and entertaining, even for the casual reader. It is not intended to replace or even be a textbook on the subject nor for the serious practitioner who has lots of experience with composites and needs a reference book. You don’t have to be a Ph.D. engineer or scientist to understand the book and appreciate the significance and beauty of composite materials.

String and Glue is arranged in a sense like what Elon Musk describes as the most important way to view knowledge – as a “semantic tree”. In that vein, I introduce first the history and motivation for the why of composites, then start with the building blocks of these materials – the elements themselves from the Periodic Table and why each of the elements I focus on are important. This forms the trunk of the tree – the trunk of our semantic tree of knowledge of composites. Then I build out the branches of the tree with descriptions of the strings, glues, how they are put together, and who is putting them together. Of course, each of these three main branches has its own sub-branches. And then toward the end of the book I give you some ideas about how to get involved in this industry and make the magic happen for yourself. Follow me on this journey into this fascinating subject and maybe learn how to make the magic happen for yourself – become a composite material aficionado.

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The Maturation of Composite (Fiberglass) Structural Shapes in Construction

#composites, #fiberglass, #structural_shapes, #construction, #composites_in_construction In this last post of 2025, I wanted to complete what I started last week and talk about fiberglass being used for structure in the construction industry. Specifically I want to chat a bit about the evolution of what we have today as standard structural shapes as well as where these products are beginning to replace steel in construction. Fiberglass Roof Truss System Made Using Strongwell

2 minutes ago7 min read

Glass Fiber Composites in the Construction Industry

#composites, #sustainability, #rebar, #fiberglass, #frp_rebar, #concrete_reinforcement I thought for this week I would change course a little bit and talk about the construction industry and the application of composites to that industry. The thing that prompted this is an article in Composites World (12/1/2025) announcing that ACMA – The American Composites Manufacturers Association – has put out what they call a product category rule or PCR for fiberglass rebar. And for t

7 days ago7 min read

This Week’s News about Recycling and End-of-Life Composites

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #end_of_life_composites, #thermolysis This week I’m going to make my newsletter just a bit shorter than what I did last week with all of the pictures of sailboats that use recycled or natural fibers for primary structure. There are a couple of fairly newsworthy things that have happened just in the last few weeks that I want to focus on this week. And I want to also let everyone know that I am going to take a couple of weeks off wri

Dec 36 min read

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The Maturation of Composite (Fiberglass) Structural Shapes in Construction

#composites, #fiberglass, #structural_shapes, #construction, #composites_in_construction In this last post of 2025, I wanted to complete what I started last week and talk about fiberglass being used for structure in the construction industry. Specifically I want to chat a bit about the evolution of what we have today as standard structural shapes as well as where these products are beginning to replace steel in construction. Fiberglass Roof Truss System Made Using Strongwell

2 minutes ago7 min read

Glass Fiber Composites in the Construction Industry

#composites, #sustainability, #rebar, #fiberglass, #frp_rebar, #concrete_reinforcement I thought for this week I would change course a little bit and talk about the construction industry and the application of composites to that industry. The thing that prompted this is an article in Composites World (12/1/2025) announcing that ACMA – The American Composites Manufacturers Association – has put out what they call a product category rule or PCR for fiberglass rebar. And for t

7 days ago7 min read

This Week’s News about Recycling and End-of-Life Composites

#composites, #sustainability, #recycling, #end_of_life_composites, #thermolysis This week I’m going to make my newsletter just a bit shorter than what I did last week with all of the pictures of sailboats that use recycled or natural fibers for primary structure. There are a couple of fairly newsworthy things that have happened just in the last few weeks that I want to focus on this week. And I want to also let everyone know that I am going to take a couple of weeks off wri

Dec 36 min read

Natural Fibers and Racing Sailboats – How Much Fun is That?

#racingsailboats, #sustainability, #naturalfiber, #flaxfiber, #bamboofiber, #bioresins I saw an article in Composites World this week about a flax fiber boat manufacturer I wrote about two and a half years ago – Greenboats – that has been building recreational sailboat hulls since about 2020 using flax fiber. They source their flax of course from France which grows more of this stuff than any other country in Europe. Anyway, the article is about a strategic partnership betw

Nov 268 min read

ABOUT ME

Ned Patton, Ph.D., P.E. lives and works in San Diego California. He has more than 40 years of experience in research and technology development, and has been involved with and has been a proponent of composites for over 35 of those years. Currently working at Oceaneering International as a senior technical professional, he is actively developing composite material parts and structures for use undersea.