The Center for Computational Materials Science and Engineering Data is an effort by ASM International to define protocols collecting, disseminating, and managing materials data.

WHITEHOUSE: External Stakeholder Activities

It also has hundreds of terabytes of digitized newspapers, and petabytes of data from other sources, such as film archives and materials from the Folklife Center.

FORBES: The Library of Congress' Twitter Archive, One Year Later

Retail sales data excludes volatile categories like autos, gas and building materials and includes discretionary purchases such as electronics, furniture and apparel.

FORBES: Mastercard Stock Rides Retail Rebound To New Highs

Using data tilted to recent action, RiskGrades tell you that financials, energy and materials are the most dangerous sectors, while consumer staples, health care and utilities are safest.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that demand for refined metals, steel and other materials used for building remains subdued.

BBC: China manufacturing activity shrinks again in September

Now that this data has been collected, it can be analysed and compared with the known spectral signatures of materials likely to be found in comets.

BBC: Q&A: Deep Impact comet mission

However, he warned against focussing disproportionately on the eight areas of excellence outlined by the Chancellor in November ("big data" computing, synthetic biology, regenerative medicine, agricultural science, energy storage, space, robotics and advanced materials including nanotechnology).

BBC: Autumn Statement: Science gets ?600m injection