Transparent Aluminum Is Here 625
Alien54 writes "Scientists in the US have developed a novel technique to make bulk quantities of glass from alumina for the first time. (link includes a picture of samples) Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a "flame-spray" technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and could, say the team, be extended to other oxides (see also: A Rosenflanz et al. 2004 Nature 430 761). Scotty would be pleased."
Silly submitter (Score:5, Insightful)
What next, suggesting people use the silicon [wikipedia.org] in their computers as a breast implant [wikipedia.org]?
Re:woohho (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:woohho (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullet Proof Glass ? (Score:1, Insightful)
How about building with alumina windows ? Beter Resistance to fire and EarthQuake ?
It's a good discovery. Realy.
Submitter - Not Silly (Score:4, Insightful)
Computer mods? (Score:4, Insightful)
- Transparent aluminum case
- Transparent hard drives
- Transparent power supplies
All without voiding your warranty
And for military uses - the sky is the limit (really - think about it...)
Get a free ipod [freeipods.com] [it really works - my buddy just got his... should have believed it earlier
Re:The missing ingredient for an invisible plane! (Score:3, Insightful)
I am not a chemist, but I believe the condition of the material to allow shifting of bonds that allows metals to bend without breaking is nearly the opposite of the condition present in glass. Ie, alumina glass may be stronger, but it will not bend.
Re:Scotty would be pleased. (Score:2, Insightful)
Sounds like a good plan for optical disks (Score:5, Insightful)
If that was the case, that would be an AWESOME application for this. Although the MP/RIAA would see that as a reason for preventing backup copies of your media. I mean, if the disk can't be damaged, why would you need a backup? Although you could still lose it or have it stolen...
Re:Scotty would be pleased. (Score:1, Insightful)
i guess this is flamebait but... what can i do, im russian and ive lived in london for the last 13 years... shit bothers me
Re:Submitter - Not Silly (Score:3, Insightful)
Think of these examples:
Pensylvania Dutch (not dutch)
Mountain ash (not an ash)
mountian lion (not a lion)
american buffalo (not a buffalo)
Just because a name is born of ignorance doen't prevent it from becoming the common name for something.
I could see how the Transparent Aluminum of Star Trek is a mislabeled transparent alumina rather than a physics defying metal.
Re:Silly submitter (Score:3, Insightful)
Alzheimer, anyone? (Score:1, Insightful)
http://www.alzscot.org/info/aluminium.html [alzscot.org]
Remote sensing (Score:2, Insightful)
Remote sensing technologies, used to indicate the presence of living bodies onboard an approaching spaceship, as well as the composition of their alien atmosphere. What do we have? X-rays and spectroscopy, both dependent on electromagnetic radiation and a clear line of vision, and we still wrap christmas presents in paper for a surprise effect... Give the kid a tricorder, and there will be no point in wrapping any more gifts for him!
Also, I love the work they have done on galactic standardization, allowing instant video and audio communication between species that have hardly ever met before. What protocol do they use to agree on frame rate, aspect ratio and colour coding? Not to mention their translation and interpretation services. Someone ought to explain their identification of weapons signatures too; do different munitions have some kind of encoding or does the identification rely on their physical properties only?
alumina windows (Score:2, Insightful)
As to fires, the problem is that if alumina is stronger, it'll be harder for the firefighters to break the windows to let smoke out, gain access to portions of the building, or rescue people (I can't imagine watching people clawing at the windows from inside as they slowly burn to death, while you're helpless to stop it--or maybe I can, but just don't want to).
Re:Scotty would be pleased. (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, no. Their 'V' is just like our 'V', but generally pronounced harshly. 'W' is a very different sound that they lack. They would have said "nuclear vessel", but pronounced "where" as "vhere". The problem during the cold war is that the public heard very little Russian spoken. Thus it somehow entered into common usage that the V's and W's get switched with a Russian accent. This simply isn't the case.
A more likely reason for the confusion is that Russian has several sounds which English does not. (For example, they have a 'zsa' sound as in the name Zsa Zsa Gabor. They transliterate all J's into zsa's.) Since these sounds often serve as replacements for english sounds, many people have difficulty in distinguishing exactly what sounds were used. Thus silliness like W's instead of V's entered as a common idea of a Russian accent. No real Russian sounds like Mr. Chekov (who's name we absolutely murder in pronunciation).
Re:Colorful (Score:3, Insightful)
IBM GLass Platter drives? (Score:1, Insightful)
Could this be the answer to their problem?
Re:Not exactally (Score:2, Insightful)
"You forget water is more then just hydrogen.."
That is my point!
Aluminum-oxide is more than just aluminum.
Twice now you've referred to this material as a transparent-aluminum.
My point is that it's not aluminum.
It is aluminum-oxide (aka, Alumina).
This isn't about color additives.
One is a metal, the other is a ceramic!
Knowing this, go back and re-read my first post and then you'll understand what I said a little better.