Several years ago, when my boss came to my office and said that he wanted me to manage the tribology program at Argonne National Laboratory, I was mystified. My first response was, “What is tribology?” In the years since, the cards have been somewhat reversed. The initial response of person after person when I mention my position as Tribology Section Manager of the Materials and Components Technology Division is to look blank and pose the same question to me. Having somewhat of a playful nature, I often simply try to drop the term very nonchalantly and continue speaking, taking great delight in the puzzled looks my approach engenders. When somone eventually injects the inevitable inquiry, I give a rather stilted answer, such as:

“Tribology is the science and art of interacting surfaces in relative motion with respect to one another.”

Since this succeeds in erasing only a portion of their curiosity, I eventually have pity on them and say, “It's really the rather mundane areas of friction, lubrication, and wear.” I have often pondered and discussed with colleagues whether we did ourselves any favor by coining the word in the first place, but it does serve a useful purpose in at least attempting to obtain a degree of helpful communication between people engaged in the various aspects of this broad area of endeavor.