[abdullahkhalids]

The space of "fairly typical materials" is very wide because there are lots of elements and their combinations blow up very fast. Secondly, materials are often very sensitive to small physical or chemical changes, resulting in wildly differing properties.

To you the simpleness of the final result is surprising, but that simple result was discovered after a long and exhaustive search. A search into a wide and shallow space can be just as impressive and difficult as a search into a narrow and deep space.

[darkteflon]

I think OP was just expressing delight and wonder at our surprising and elegant universe rather than making light of the findings.

[ragerino]

Actually looking into independent power sources for small IoT sensor stations for a hobby project. I think to understand climate change better, we need more data.

Engineer here btw.

[jcims]

Yep! Delight is a great word for it.

[jcims]

It goes even beyond the combinations, no? The physical manifestation of the end material plays a key role in its properties, so you could just make a simple alloy of the above and not have this thermoelectric effect. Only when you apply them just so do you get this outcome. So crazy...