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Scientists in Japan say they've fashioned glass that's almost as strong as steel.
The ability to make super strong glass could lead to a whole new generation of windows in buildings and vehicles, but could also prove useful in screens for electronics, like tablets, computers, and smartphones. The team, from the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science, had their
findings published earlier this month in
Scientific Reports by
Nature."We are looking to commercialize the technique within five years," University of Tokyo assistant professor Atsunobu Masuno told
Asahi Shimbun.
Here's the secret ingredient in such tough glass: alumina. It's an oxide of aluminum, and mixing it with silicon dioxide makes glass way tougher. Problem is, when scientists have tried to use large amounts of alumina in the past, it caused the mixture to crystallize as soon as it touched any kind of container, preventing glass from being formed.
So the Tokyo team brewed up a method of making glass that required no container at all: they used gas to push the chemical components into the air, where they synthesized together. The result?
A transparent ultra glass that's 50% alumina and rivals the Young's modulus of steel and iron, which measures rigidity and elasticity in solids.
The practical uses are broad, since the study notes that
alumina glass made via aerodynamic levitation can yield a product that's thin, light, and has excellent optical properties. We say, bring on commercialization.
Comment: The 'external mechanism' for triggering supervolcanoes (and other natural phenomena) could be Nemesis - Sol's dark companion. As Earth 'opens up' we are seeing an increase and intensification of lightning strikes, Jet stream meanderings, Gulf stream slow-downs, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, meteor fireballs, tornadoes, deluges, sinkholes and noctilucent clouds.
SOTT Earth Changes Summary - September 2015: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs
See Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk, for more in depth explanations of these related Earth changes, the application of the Electric Universe paradigm and plasma physics, and how they may be connected to a common cause - the close approach of our Sun's 'twin' and an accompanying cometary swarm.
Perhaps 'something wicked this way comes?'