The largest contingent of physicists do work on Condensed Matter Physics, which is essentially materials science https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.02789.pdf For exactly, the reason you suggest: they get the largest amount of funding because it is the most economically useful subfield.

> The vast majority of advancements come directly from materials science.

This is one of the most thought-provoking comments I've ever seen on HN!

Can you expand on that for a couple of paragraphs?

The Bessemer Process - Steel is cheap enough that you can make buildings, vehicles, and bridges out of it. Notably things like boilers and trains.

The isolation of elements and the development of the periodic table - All of modern chemistry comes from this. Synthetic materials, modern metallurgy.

Plastics - Used basically everywhere.

Semiconductors - Basis of computing

I don't think these are the "best" examples as they are probably not completely accurate, but there is probably a reason why the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Steel Ages exist as a concept.

Also I think it makes sense since materials science is more applied chemistry/physics/engineering, so naturally materials science is huge because it represents 3 fields of knowledge interacting.

im not sure "steel age" is a common term, but I agree with the idea. the (second) industrial revolution was spurred by availability of steel

anyway, you can take it further. the information age we are in is arguably characterized by silicon

One of the early limitations of aircraft was their wooden construction and the lack of water resistant glues.

Of course, aluminium was the perfect material and one of the most abundant elements in the earth's crust. However it was so rare and difficult to extract that that the Washington monument is capped by a small piece.

The Bayes process and subsequent improvements have since made it common and relatively cheap.