Plagiarism is a crime against academy. It deceives readers, hurts plagiarized authors, and gets the plagiarist undeserved benefits. However, even though these arguments do show that copying other people's intellectual contribution is wrong, they do not apply to the copying of words. Copying a few sentences that contain no original idea (e.g. in the introduction) is of marginal importance compared to stealing the ideas of others. The two must be clearly distinguished, and the 'plagiarism' label should not be used for deeds which are very different in nature and importance.

Materials which can undergo extremely fast displacive transformations as well as very slow diffusive transformations are studied using a Ginzburg-Landau framework. This simple model captures the essential physics behind microstructure formation and time-temperature-transformation diagrams in alloys such as steels. It also predicts the formation of mixed microstructures by an interplay between diffusive and displacive mechanisms. The intrinsic volume changes associated with the transformations stabilize mixed microstructures such as martensite-retained austenite (responsible for the existence of a martensite finish temperature) and martensite-pearlite.

business ethics, code of ethics, duty, engineering ethics, moral luck, moral obligation,