Captain, there be whales in here

Looks like tranparent aluminum is finally here

physicsweb.org...

I remember, don't know what episode however, Scotty is trying to explain how to make transparent aliminum.

[edit on 29-11-2004 by birddawg]

Great find! The article's an excellent one -- I had no idea you could make glass out of materials OTHER than silica!

Learn something new every day!

This has been mentioned here before, actually. At least I thought it had. I can't find it anywhere. I know I saw it somewhere and I researched a load about it through google directories. Maybe it was slashdot.

I just wanted to provoke a little more thought on this topic.

Can you imagine the implications of this product if the alumina glass strenth could be made more maelable.
Also, could the optical properties be change is a electrical current is pass through the material.

hmmmmm.................

A fighter jet could be made of this, fly around and not be seen.

Talk about stealth.

Scotty tires to explain it in Star Trek IV the Voyage Home. Very interesting concept.

That article was great. I will share it with my chemistry classes. We're studing about properties of elements right now. This should be a interesting topic to discuss.

Great Find!

But I wouldn't expect a jet fighter, or anything else for that matter, anytime soon made out of this stuff for a couple of reasons. First of all in order to create the material the process calls for calcium or rare earth oxides of which there is a very limited suppy. Secondly the quenching rate is 1000 degrees per second making it very difficult to produce large quantities.