The discovery of stainless steels is generally thought to originate in Europe about a century ago, although many people find this claim debatable. Even within Europe, there is controversy over the 'birthplace' of stainless steel. While there is debate on who should be credited with the discovery of stainlessness, it is incontrovertible that stainless steels have contributed significantly to the wellbeing of humanity. The use of stainless steels ranges from low-end products such as water buckets to very high-end ones, such as the spacecraft propellers and casings. It is no exaggeration that stainless steels are omnipresent in our daily lives. Although stainless steels are such time-honoured materials, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Research and development of these materials are actively pursued at various institutions worldwide. A search with the keywords 'stainless steel' in popular databases such as Science Citation Index-Expanded or Scorpus would reveal thousands of recent publications. This is a vividly testimony to the perennial interest on stainless steels as a key research topic by various research in the world. © 2013 Bentham Science Publishers. All Rights Reserved.