Developed by researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science in Japan, this fresh form of glass is nearly as strong as steel, with potential applications ranging from electronics to vehicles and architecture. On scales measuring strength, this new material ranked on par with metals normally used for industrial applications.

The scientists published their findings in Nature and aim to commercialize their work in the next five years, bringing it to tablets, computers, smartphones, cars and buildings. It is still thin, like and see-through like typical glass, just far more robust. Alumina is the critical ingredient – mixed with silicon dioxide, this strengthening agent had to be added in a new way to keep it from crystallizing before the glass could form (which normally happens upon contact with the container of the glass).

“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.” Unlike traditional ultra-strong glass, this has a very promising strength-to-weight ratio and even thin layers are potentially incredibly resilient to damage or destruction.

The post Strong as Steel: Scientists Unveil New ‘Unbreakable’ Glass first appeared on Gajitz.

With a few notable exceptions, just about all 3D printing up to this point has been done with plastic as a base material. A collaboration between MIT’s Mediated Matter Group, MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and MIT’s Glass Lab has led to a pretty exciting advancement: 3D printing with molten glass.

The group calls their process G3DP. It involves an upper cartridge acting as a kiln at up to 1900 degrees Fahrenheit. The lower chamber anneals the molten glass, allowing it to cool slowly, letting the newly-printed structure harden. The team figured out that by precisely adjusting the orientation and thickness of the optically transparent glass, they can closely control the light transmission, reflection, and refraction qualities of the finished objects.

That may sound a little like mumbo-jumbo, and the video only seems to focus on the (admittedly very impressive) artistic value of the G3DP method. But in simpler terms, it means that this method might help us make higher-quality, less-expensive fiber optics in the near future. It could even be used as a simpler method of making eyeglass lenses – and the decorative possibilities are still a pretty big part of the G3DP method’s appeal, of course. Just imagine these gorgeous bespoke light fixtures all throughout your house!

The post Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot: MIT’s 3D Printing Uses Molten Glass first appeared on Gajitz.

When you’re putting dishes away and a drinking glass slips out of your hand, there’s always a second of utter dread before it hits the floor and shatters. The near future, however, could bring an elemental shift in the way glass is made thanks to research at McGill University in Montreal. Professor François Barthelat and his team studied the material that makes up the shiny surface inside mollusk shells – most people know the material as “mother of pearl,” but its actual name is nacre.

The internal structure of nacre is remarkable in that it is made up of molecules that interlock like puzzle pieces. This structure gives the material incredible strength, even under stress. Nacre is so amazing that material scientists have been studying it and trying to recreate its properties for more than 20 years. Previous attempts to create a synthetic nacre have centered on building the material from the ground up – in the words of Prof. Barthelat, it was like “trying to build a Lego wall with microscopic building blocks. It’s not the easiest thing in the world.”

Instead of building a stronger material from scratch, the team focused on working with existing glass. They used lasers to etch microscopic “cracks” into the glass that resembled the boundaries between the jagged nacre molecules. The strength of the glass increased by as much as 200 times. Barthelat noted that his team filled these cracks with polyurethane, but this step isn’t essential because the etched micro-cracks were enough to keep the glass from shattering. The tiny cracks absorb force from an impact, making the glass shatter-resistant and more prone to deform rather than shatter when dropped.

The post Butterfingers Rejoice! Mollusk Shell Study = Stronger Glass first appeared on Gajitz.

Sometimes, when artists and geeks come together some beautiful things can happen. That was exactly the case when the awesome dude from Smarter Every Day visited a glass blowing shop to explore the insane mystery of the Prince Rupert’s Drop.

Not familiar with the term? Most people aren’t. It’s a glass object created when molten glass is dropped into a container of cold water. The resulting tadpole-shaped piece of glass is incredibly strong and won’t break even when struck with a hammer on the larger end.

The video tells the story better than we ever could, so we’ll let Smarter Every Day explain the phenomenon, along with ultra-high-speed shots of the Prince Rupert’s Drops literally exploding into millions of pieces.

The post Tantalizing Mystery of the Exploding Prince Rupert’s Drop first appeared on Gajitz.