Mary Beckamn

is a freelance science writer based in Richland, Wash. You can contact her at mbeckman@nasw.org. Reprinted with permission from the June 2020 issue of TLT, the official monthly magazine of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, an international not-for-profit professional society headquartered in Park Ridge, Ill., www.stle.org. Available at https://www.stle.org/files/TLTArchives/2020/06_June/Feature.aspx.