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Transparent Aluminum a Reality

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the how-quaint dept.

TuballoyThunder writes "Many of us remember the scene from Star Trek IV where Scotty barters the formula for transparent aluminum for a small run. It now appears that we can now add transparent aluminum to the science fact column."

6 of 759 comments (clear)

  1. A Great Send-Off by jIyajbe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Very appropriate to announce this discovery at the same time James Doohan's remains are being sent into space. One wonders if there is a closet Trekker in the military press office. :-)

    Cheers,

    jIyajbe

    --
    "Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
  2. transparent oxide-nitride, not a metal by Muhammar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    when you read the article, you find out that the material is not aluminum metal. It is just a transparent corund-like substance. Al203 alone is pretty hard (and easy to make - including gem colored versions) and the mixed oxide-nitride is probably harder.

    --
    I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
  3. Ooooh. by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What'll be really nice is when prices get down to be viable for use in consumer-grade products. Say goodbye to broken windows from baseballs, cracked screens on dropped iPods, chipped windshields from rocks, and all sorts of other fun uses.

    It should open up some cool architectural possibilities as well.

  4. Aluminium Reality or Aluminum Realty? by kt0157 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Then there's Helum, that noble gas. And Kurchatovum, that incredibly unstable element. And Lithum, of which batteries are made. Not forgetting Valum, for people too depressed to worry about spelling.

    Yes, yes, I know, a whole continent of people can't spell that metal's name. It's just like the English who wrote "cocoa" when they should have written "cacao". Amazing how an illiterate in the wrong place at the wrong time can screw up a dictionary.

    K.

  5. Pictures by pev · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google finds some pics as expected (Sorry, PDF) :
        http://www.surmet.com/docs/Processing_ALON.pdf

    I'm not 100% certain if they're genuine or mock ups though...

    ~Pev

  6. Refractive index? by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder what the refractive index of this material is? For those of us who look through tank windshield all day (figuratively speaking), if this material can be reduced in price and has a refractive index significantly greater than 1.66, then it would make our lenses much thinner, as well as being much more scratch resistant than polycarbonate.

    Given that sapphire has a refractive index over 1.75, this *could* be a great breakthrough - if Big Green starts to consume large quantities of this, then the amortized NRE will be greatly reduced.

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers