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Dry Ice Made into Super-tough Glass
janus zeal writes "A form of solid carbon dioxide that could be used to make ultra-hard glass or coatings for microelectronic devices has been discovered.
The material, named amorphous carbonia, was created by scientists from the University of Florence in Italy.
Writing in the journal Nature, the team says the material was theoretically possible but had never been created.
It was made by squeezing dry ice, a form of carbon dioxide used to create smoke in stage shows, at huge pressure.
Scientists are interested in the new material because of the potential applications. Also, they believe it could give them clues to the processes that happen in the center of huge gas giant planets such as Jupiter."
I don't see this stuff replacing transparent aluminum anytime soon.
At room temperature, dry ice vaporizes. The only way for it to maintain its structure is under pressure. All we need to do is find some way to lower the global temperature and increase pressure...
Reminds me of the cartoon of the scientist at the blackboard with a series of equations on one side and concluding equation on the other with "And then a miracle happens." in between.
Seastead this.
Scratch-proof iPod screens of course!
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. . . if hey manage to find a way of making it stable at room teperature and pressure. . .
Easy enough. Simply apply the Congressional Model of engineering; redefine room temperature and pressure.
KFG
Well, we could suck all the Co2 out of the atmosphere. This would remove the greenhouse effect, both the manmade one and the naturally occuring one, and drop the planetary temperature. And we get our Co2 for making this stuff in the bargin! It's a win-win situation (well, except for the living - they'll be royally screwed - but they were just taking up space anyways).
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
So are nipples. But you don't see those used in construction, do ya?
(Well, actually you do. But on the workers, not the buildings. And let's face it, those aren't nipples most of us want to see.)
Cheap flights into Elbonia often connect through the Amorphous, Carbonia international airport. Unfortunately the town's not very stable when it's warm out.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Um, diamond is made from a highly available source material. Under much the same conditions actually. It also has the minor advantage of not evaporating at room temperature and pressure.
That, or we use the NASA model and swap the units of measurement. Kelvin you say? Well let's just assume they meant Celsius!
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
All we have to do is start sucking up all the carbon dioxide out of the air, and convert it into little waste cubes that can be dumped in landfills or baby seal breeding grounds. It's foolproof!
the term Vaporware Windows to a whole new level!
You must write The Book, and then tear away belief. Only you can save the light of man --Gary Numan
It's also extremely brittle. I have a little bit that an aerogel manufacturing company sent to me after a polite request based on curiosity. It was just an irregular scrap piece from the machineroom floor, about an inch thick, two inches wide, and four inches long, and the gentleman was kind enough to mail it to me free of charge (I offered to pay for it). Within two minutes of taking it out of the plastic case, it had become two pieces, and in the years since has become about seven pieces.
The MSDS enclosed with it said that it had no known toxic effects, so a friend ate a small piece, just a few millimeters on a side, before I could stop him. It didn't hurt him, but it left his mouth feeling weird. He is a bit of an eccentric, though.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
At the right temperature and pressure, a ring made from dry ice leads to frostbite and ring made from diamonds leads to sex. That's another advantage.
Isn't a diamond ring the beginning of the end of sex?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
So what sort of pussy lab do you work in where you don't regularly immerse your undergrads in custard?
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
There's other reasons - such as the fact that fogging oil condenses on the optics for the lights - you don't know real joy until you've cleaned 200+ stagelights.
"Give a man a fire, he's warm for a day, set a man on fire, he's warm for life."
Fostbite can be cured. Eventually that sex is going to take half your stuff.
Easy -- it already remained stable after being cooled to room temperature. Just increase room pressure to 5.7M PSI and you're all set. (Don't forget to swallow or yawn to equalize the pressure!)
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