I wonder if it's safe to smoke out of.
COnsidering what it's made of, I imagine it has some pretty amazing thermal properties.
Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
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Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#42Make bottles out of this, sell them, return a deposit to get them back. Wash them. Reuse.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#43This could revolutionize knife making. A steel knife is always like a saw on micro level. A glass (like obsidian) could get properly sharp. A glass with the properties of steel is a dream come true.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#44Finally, we can keep humpback whales in our starships!
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#45Sorry, But That New Glass From Japanese Researchers Isn't Unbreakable
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carmendrahl/2015/11/03/sorry-but...
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#46I think the "containerless processing technique" is an acoustic levitator. My friend was on the team building one for a Japanese investor who wanted to make a wine glass that didn't break when you knocked it over on your fancy granite worktop.
See one working https://youtu.be/0K8zs-KSitc
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#47I wonder if it's safe to smoke out of.
aluminum is a known neurotoxin
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#48This seems to be a typical case of science marketing BS.
From the original publication [1] it seems that a new stiff (i.e. high Young's modulus) glass was synthesized, comparable to other known stiff glasses. Nowhere is it mentioned that the glass is tough, i.e. breakage-resistant.
Unlike metals, ceramics and glasses are brittle [2], they will shatter on impact instead of deforming. An "unbreakable" or even just reasonably tough transparent material would therefore be a major breakthrough. This is not it though.
Another nitpick: the chemical formula of the new glass is 54(Al2O3)-46(Ta2O5), i.e it contains 2/3 tantalum by weight. Tantalum is a rare and expensive metal. Practical applications of the new glass will therefore be limited to very specific niches.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your windshield is safety glass, so consideration must be given for the need to dissipate energy when a human head collides with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield#Safety Trivia: A famous lawsuit about the safety of windshield glass was the _Pane_ vs. Ford case in 1917
I don't think that safely fracturing when struck by a human is the safety function referred to in the linked article - once a person hits the windshield, the primary safety mechanisms (seatbelts, airbags, and structural integrity of the car) have already failed, so whatever happens at the windshield will make little difference. What the article says is that the safety role of a windshield (besides not breaking into d…
Yes, but your analysis discounts vehicles striking pedestrians and cyclists.
Re: Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your windshield is safety glass, so consideration must be given for the need to dissipate energy when a human head collides with it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windshield#Safety Trivia: A famous lawsuit about the safety of windshield glass was the _Pane_ vs. Ford case in 1917
I don't think that safely fracturing when struck by a human is the safety function referred to in the linked article - once a person hits the windshield, the primary safety mechanisms (seatbelts, airbags, and structural integrity of the car) have already failed, so whatever happens at the windshield will make little difference. What the article says is that the safety role of a windshield (besides not breaking into d…
> once a person hits the windshield, the primary safety mechanisms (seatbelts, airbags, and structural integrity of the car) have already failed, so whatever happens at the windshield will make little difference.
There used to be an issue where people's head would go through a window but the glass wouldn't entirely shatter, so the rest of the body wouldn't go through. A deadly broken window collar
Source: took the same tech class 2 years in a row, and watched some documentary on car safety _4 times_ each year. Yay for American middle school