Transparent aluminium

Or aluminum for you americans

I saw this link on slashdot recently
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123012131

Apparently this stuff is lighter, tougher and more scratch resistant than glass. All the light transmission goodness of UCL but shatter and scratch proof to boot. I hope a few flashlight lens manufacturers saw this link too!

Wait a minute here, are you saying that movie I saw where Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty went back in time to 20th century San Francisco and gave a manufacturer the futuristic formula for "transparent aluminum" so they could construct a holding tank for whales in their commandeered Klingon Bird-of-Prey was actually a documentary? :wow:

Man, I had the same thought when I saw this thead title. Good thing for us Scotty could type. Now we need some of those healing pills Bones was handing out in the hospital!

As someone said in another thread, I want all my lights beamed by transporter as the shipping method!

Quote:

"Please, Spock, do me a favor ... 'n' don't say it's `fascinating'..." -- Dr. McCoy

"No... but it is... interesting..." -- Spock (The Ultimate Computer)

Wow...I'm speechless...first thing I thought of too soon as I saw the thread title was "man, Star Trek technology isn't all that far fetched." :rock: This is simply amazing news, the possibilities for this material are quite possibly limitless.

Just...wow.

OK I guess I am the 10th person to recall the Star Trek movie! Cool stuff!

I guess I'm the 11th...as soon as I saw the thread title, I remembered the scene where Scotty sat at the computer, picked up the mouse, held it up to his mouth and said "Hello computer" into it, not long before furnishing the formula for transparent aluminum to the people at the acrylic tank factory.

Now we can get PowerBooks (Aluminum casing) that look like iBooks (Clear polycarbonate casing)

Saaby said:

Now we can get PowerBooks (Aluminum casing) that look like iBooks (Clear polycarbonate casing)

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Think about house/bldg. windows that won't break...

make that 12th :nana:
Cool stuff!

Guess I am lucky 13!

post deleted

There is a big misunderstanding here. It's not aluminum, nor metal, nor conductive. Aluminum is part of the compound, but that's about all. It's a nitride ceramic, transparent, and looks to be highly resistant to ballistic damage.

Compounds don't keep the characteristics of it's elements. Otherwise, water would be extremely explosive.

It may be a ceramic but it is still an aluminium compound. I'll accept calling it "transparent aluminium"

The_LED_Museum said:

I guess I'm the 11th...as soon as I saw the thread title, I remembered the scene where Scotty sat at the computer, picked up the mouse, held it up to his mouth and said "Hello computer" into it, not long before furnishing the formula for transparent aluminum to the people at the acrylic tank factory.

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I remember digitizing the scene on my Mac LC, processing it overnight, and using it as a startup movie. Postage stamp sized uf couce - 160x120 pixels and a jerky 10fps. Very funny for us Mac users.

Empath said:

There is a big misunderstanding here. It's not aluminum, nor metal, nor conductive. Aluminum is part of the compound, but that's about all. It's a nitride ceramic, transparent, and looks to be highly resistant to ballistic damage.

Compounds don't keep the characteristics of it's elements. Otherwise, water would be extremely explosive.

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Yea, I agree with you mostly.
However, with a name like aluminum oxynitride and the fact that you can see right through it, you can bet that it will be known as Transparent Aluminum.
A lot of things that have similarities to Sci-Fi objects pick up that name:
The first Nuclear Sub was the Nautilus
The first Space Shuttle was the Enterprise
A drug named Interferon got its name from a comic strip
The video game series "DOOM" has a gun called a B.F.G. and now there is a 50 cal rifle called the Serbu 50 BFG
the list goes on too...

Once the price comes down I can think of another great use for this-subway car windows. Scratch resistance will finally end the "scratchiti" plaguing the current acrylic subway car windows (the MTA didn't use glass because of vandalism concerns). Great stuff-scratch resistance better than glass and unbreakable. Now I need to sue these people for stealing my invention.

AlphaTea said:

The video game series "DOOM" has a gun called a B.F.G. and now there is a 50 cal rifle called the Serbu 50 BFG

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I for one am not sure why they renamed it the "Bio Force Gun" for the movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFG9000

They already have those scratch-resistant coatings for acrylic TDK CDs and DVDs (essentially vapor-deposited quartz: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6583, a pity they are not used on ipods), but this would resist far more damage and be flame-resistant as well! I've seen them change the windows in bus stops from safety glass to plastic to perforated steel now, and it's just sad that people need to sit in the wind due to the actions of some vandals.

bfg9000 said:

I for one am not sure why they renamed it the "Bio Force Gun" for the movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFG9000

They already have those scratch-resistant coatings for acrylic TDK CDs and DVDs (essentially vapor-deposited quartz: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6583, a pity they are not used on ipods), but this would resist far more damage and be flame-resistant as well! I've seen them change the windows in bus stops from safety glass to plastic to perforated steel now, and it's just sad that people need to sit in the wind due to the actions of some vandals.

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BIG FREAKING GUN...kinda is the name...