Super-strong glass

There's gotta be a tradeoff.

Possibly the glass instantly dissolves into a toxic goo upon contact with moisture? Or it makes a screaming sound whenever touched with a fork?

Cool, so once there is enough of this produced they go out of business, hahahaha.

Not so! Glass is one of the strongest materials on the planet. Making it resilient opens up a whole new range of manufacturing. Fiberglass, armored windows, bathyscaphs, lab and process equipment. I can envision that futuristic Crystal City made of the stuff!!

I hope they have the wit to sell multiple licences, so Corning doesn't corner the process.

Indeed I failed to see the full extent of such an advance. I have always wanted a fired alumina house in pure white but a glass house would be even better.

One other advantage would be that we could live in glass houses and throw stones, without concern for the consequences...

I agree! That would make possible glass roof tiles and roof windows that would not be broken by hail, specially fist sized one...... Something perfect for India, specially if it would be able to withstand fist sized stones too! My wife told me how in Kolkata nobody can have glass window because people break it as soon as possible, by throwing stones... Imagine surprise! :-)) It would be still better if recycled glass can be used to produce such strong glass, no?

In my country one scientist by accident created glass that was one side transparent for IR radiation, but it was war time and he was drafted, so he destroyed it all so nobody would steal his discovery while he is on war front, and when he died secret was lost........ I know little about it, and perhaps some glass expert could repeat this discovery if pointed in right direction :-))

So I would appreciate if someone can connect me to this other scientist, now he has chance to combine it with his super strong glass and save huge amount of energy...

Every window could be made from three separated frames with glass inset, where middle one is on the axe and outer frames have hinges, so in Summer middle glass is set to be transparent for IR radiation from house to outside (while it preclude IR radiation coming in) and in Winter it should be opposite, letting IR radiation in but not out..........

I have this idea since 1993, but in wartime glass was proclaimed to be >>strategic material<< for very misterious reasons, and I could not have registered my company to produce it :-((

Regards from Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia, Europe!

Marijan Pollak, IT SA/SE 1st. Class, Instructor and Team Leader (retired)

Makes me think of "Trrrransparrrent Aluminum!" said with my best Scotty voice of course

What happened with the guy that discovered how to make glass as strong as steel. Did that flop? It was going to used on planes, as a start. You could drop this stuff from a skyscraper and it bounced.