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Transparent Aluminum Is "New State of Matter"

Posted by timothy on from the baseball-bats-will-never-be-the-same dept.

Professor_Quail writes with this interesting excerpt: "Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminum by bombarding the metal with the world's most powerful soft X-ray laser. 'Transparent aluminum' 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."

31 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. This is a great breakthrough... by ls671 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is a great breakthrough. This means that we can now wear full face tinfoil hats for even more protection without risking to bump into something anymore. Thanks that tinfoil hats are actually made of aluminum nowadays ! ;-))

    Imagine the progress for this brave user:

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JVVaXmiE24g/RuYklvXfUqI/AAAAAAAAFDo/ES8XpC4bcbg/s400/tinfoil2.bmp

    Tinfoil hats are made of aluminum:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by lorenlal · · Score: 4, Funny

      But can we be sure that this is the guy who actually invented it?

    2. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Rei · · Score: 5, Funny

      A "keyboard"... how quaint.

      --
      Look at me, still talking while there's science to do.
    3. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tin foil hats are made from tin foil. If you're using aluminum foil, you're making an aluminum foil hat.

      Incidentally, aluminum is not very effective at blocking the government's mind control rays. Why do you think they replaced tin foil with aluminum foil? Luckily I stocked up decades ago, but anyone who thinks aluminum foil will protect them is playing right into the government's hands.

      Posting anonymously for obvious reasons.

    4. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Verdatum · · Score: 5, Funny

      How do we know that you aren't the government, cleverly trying to get the masses to switch from their effective aluminum foil to worthless tin foil??

    5. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by dontmakemethink · · Score: 3, Funny

      But can we be sure that this is the guy who actually invented it?

      I know what you mean! I invented the time machine, then it turns out my wife had already patented it a year earlier! Guess that means she's going to find out I've been tapping her sister...

      --

      War as we knew it was obsolete
      Nothing could beat complete denial
      - Emily Haines
    6. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      A "keyboard"... how quaint.

      "Hello, Computer......."

    7. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by I'm+not+really+here · · Score: 2, Funny

      Extremely high standards at Starfleet Academy?

      I mean, don't they still teach Assembly, COBOL and basic tube processor design in the good schools even though we've gone way past these "quaint" technologies?

      --
      Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
    8. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      But it's so simple. Only a great fool would reach for the tin foil hat. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose aluminum foil hat. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose tin foil hat.

    9. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by daVinci1980 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I saw this at New Scientist yesterday and almost submitted it, until I actually read the article.

      Oh you newbies, reading articles before submitting them.

      --
      I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
    10. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Pollardito · · Score: 4, Funny

      So their breakthrough was creating something that is both dense and extremely hot? The same sort of thing can be found at most every bar I've been to

    11. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by itsdapead · · Score: 3, Funny

      Guess that means she's going to find out I've been tapping her sister...

      Only after you find out that her sister is also your own great-grandmother.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    12. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

      So, you're saying that NEITHER tin nor aluminum is effective?!?

      That's right. The only thing you can do is spend a year building up an immunity to government mind control rays.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    13. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Taibhsear · · Score: 2, Funny

      We've just tangented from one meme to another so seamlessly it's almost INCONCEIVABLE!

    14. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by wcb4 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't think that word means what you think it means

      --
      I reject your reality ... and substitute my own.
    15. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 3, Funny
      You had JCL? Ooo och sheer luuxury mon! We had GCOS and eight logical names and the first two letters had to match the COBOL FD!

      But can ye tell the young'uns about that nowadays? Noooo...

      --
      Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
    16. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by dissy · · Score: 4, Funny

      A "keyboard"... how quaint.

      So why was he so good with it? Punch cards are quaint from my perspective but I wouldn't know where to start with them. Is he also proficient with using a morse code transmitter?

      Because he's Scotty. He's bad ass!

      Don't you watch the show?

      P.S., yes, he is proficient in morse code. Even lowly captain picard knows how to write long instructions in binary!
      And we all know the engineers know waaaay more than the officers, in any time period :D

      (Two more stamps on my geek card and I get a free sandwich!)

    17. Re:This is a great breakthrough... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      ...because perhaps Scotty was a true engineer?

      Just because they are 'out-dated', whatever that means...

      I'm using a netbook to post this, from Japan. But I still know how to use an abacus, as well as a calculator.

      I can program in assembly, though I usually code in Python, C, etc.

      And yes, I did learn programming on a keypunch machine in high school, circa 1972. :-) ROTFL

      And yes, I know how ALL digital technology works, on a binary level, thanks to being introduced to assembly coding in 1972. Assembly line statements typed into a keypunch machine. Then card deck sent to university main frame by mail (PCs hadn't been invented yet! :-)). Received printout (usually full of errors :-)) about a week later. Repeat ad nosium. My first 'high level' programming language was Fortran. Haven't touched it much lately...:-)

      Jeez, young'uns these days. Just because they walk around with a netbook and an ipod, they think they have a clue. Ask any of them about the binary code actually being run on these devices and you'll get a blank look.
      Obviously, not 'Scotty' level material, these younguns...no doubt most younguns these days would either not be accepted, or flunk out of Star Fleet Academy...:-)

      Now get off my lawn.

  2. Frankly by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just can't see it.

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  3. I must say... by Spiflicator · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thats a whale of a claim.

  4. Oxford by fprintf · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since the researchers are at Oxford, shouldn't the new material be "Aluminium"?

    --
    This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
  5. How many times... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Have you wondered if that soda can over there is empty or full?

    1. Re:How many times... by furby076 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Have you wondered if that soda can over there is empty or full?

      Or has a cigarette butt in it?

      --

      I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
  6. Adjectives and YOU! by Alzheimers · · Score: 4, Funny

    world's most powerful soft X-ray laser.

    Really, unless you're talking about bathroom tissue, you really shouldn't use the term "World's most powerful" and "Soft" together.

  7. Re:Doesn't look that way. by Anonymous+Struct · · Score: 3, Funny

    As long as you can see whales through it, that's really all we need. Don't over-engineer things so much.

  8. Re:No, they didn't make transparent aluminum. by kpainter · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wonder if I can replace my GE "soft-white" light bulbs with GE "soft X-ray" bulbs? Could be cool.

  9. Star Trek fans will not be pleased by sdjc · · Score: 2, Funny

    In breaking with Star Trek Canon, we discovered this before the whales went extinct.

  10. Cat's Cradle by way2slo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds cool, just as long as we don't accidentally create ice-nine while making these "new states of matter".

  11. Missing an important point. by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny

    "The real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion."

    To say nothing of whale transport.

  12. Re:No, they didn't make transparent aluminum. by bughunter · · Score: 2, Funny

    It doesn't say, but the FLASH laser is a free-electron laser, which as I understand it is continuously tunable, see here. The FLASH wikipedia page says it it is tunable from 10 to 200 nm, which includes both SX and EUV parts of the spectrum.

    --
    I can see the fnords!
  13. BBQ implications by WML+MUNSON · · Score: 3, Funny

    Holy shit! This is fantastic!

    I can now see what the status of my tinfoil wrapped dinner is without unwrapping it for a status check!

    Hallelujah!