Transparent Aluminum Is 'New State Of Matter'

Transparent Aluminum Is 'New State Of Matter'

www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2009) — Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.

knocked out’ a core electron from every aluminium atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline st

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This sounds pretty amazing, but beyond that my input is moot. I can only imagine a world where amazing meta-materials like these are common place. Here is an excerpt with more easily understandable tech info for those science buffs:

Professor Wark added: ‘What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminium into this exotic new material in a single step by using this very powerful laser. For a brief period the sample looks and behaves in every way like a new form of matter. In certain respects, the way it reacts is as though we had changed every aluminium atom into silicon: it’s almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light!’

www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Considering Emerals, Rubies and Saphires to name a few, are Crystallized Aluminum Oxide. I would dare say there is nothing new about transparent aluminum at all. We just didn't have the resources to use it in manufacturing for say-windows or tank walls to hold humpback whales on spaceships.

(edit part below)
Forgot to include:
What is described sounds less like a new form of matter but matter in a 'modified state'. Kind of like Non-Newtonian liguid.

[edit on 27-7-2009 by lordtyp0]

reply to post by Kevin_X2


Here's one nobody probably heard of...

International Team Discovers Transparent Metal
March 16 2009
www.azom.com...

However, as the researchers found, element sodium does just the opposite. A perfect white metal at atmospheric pressure, on increasing pressure sodium first turns black, then (at the pressure of 2 million atmospheres) red transparent, and eventually becomes a colorless transparent material – just like glass.

Those are interesting, and i have read about similar phenomenon before (metals and other things being turned transparent ect...) but i think this is different. They didn't just tinker with the material until it became invisible, using all kinds of different compounds and chemical processes. They simply used an extremely powerful X-ray, directed it at the material and it occurred perfectly in a single step.

This is significant because it knocked out one of the inner-ring electrons without destabilizing the atom, and it was done under relatively simple conditions. Also, they saw consistent change to the point where the material became unrecognizable as the previous compound, if only for a second.

I don't usually do science posts, but i think this one bears some significance, respectively.