Treknology? "transparent alumina" invented by 3M and a German company

[Cannikin]

Rich Beyond the Dreams of Avarice?

It's strangely appropriate that in the same month that James Doohan is being honored with a farewell convention and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an invention that his character brought from the future to a chemist in 1986 is now rearing its head in the scientific world. Remember "Transparent Aluminum," the matrix for which Scotty conjured up on an ancient Macintosh for Dr. Nichols ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home")? Well, instead of Plexicorp in San Francisco, it's actually 3M in Minnesota claiming credit for a new form of glass made from alumina (aluminum oxide), according to this article at physicsweb.org. At the same time, there is a ceramic research lab in Dresden, Germany, claiming to have developed "transparent alumina" that is amazingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of the same thickness, according to this Rense.com page. Well, maybe Dr. Nichols sold off the formula to others in order to become "rich beyond the dreams of avarice" like Dr. McCoy promised.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/6502.html

[grytpype]

1. Shows you what Trekkies know about science...

alumina and aluminium are not the same thing

[Cannikin]

2. Just for reference:

alumina
Any of several forms of aluminum oxide, Al2O3, occurring naturally as corundum, in a hydrated form in bauxite.

aluminum
A silvery-white, ductile metallic element, the most abundant in the earth's crust but found only in combination, chiefly in bauxite.

http://physicsweb.org/article/news/8/8/9

Glass breakthrough

Scientists in the US have developed a novel technique to make bulk quantities of glass from alumina for the first time. Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a "flame-spray" technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and could, say the team, be extended to other oxides (A Rosenflanz et al. 2004 Nature 430 761).

Glass is formed when a molten material is cooled so quickly that its constituent atoms do not have time to align themselves into an ordered lattice. However, it is difficult to make glasses from most materials because they need to be cooled -- or quenched -- at rates of up to 10 million degrees per second.

Silica is widely used in glass-making because the quenching rates are much lower, but researchers would like to make glass from alumina as well because of its superior mechanical and optical properties. Alumina can form glass if it is alloyed with calcium or rare-earth oxides, but the required quenching rate can be as high as 1000 degrees per second, which makes it difficult to produce bulk quantities.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer "invented" transparent metal in 1939

It was featured in the book After Worlds Collide, the sequel to When Worlds Collide. The alien civilization on the replacement for Earth used it for windows.

--bkl