Science Creates Glass That's Stronger Than Steel
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
What I find most amusing is that during Scotty's time I would guess transparent aluminum was used for ship portholes (windows) primarily. But then comes better and more efficient forcefield technology eliminating the need...starting with the Enterprise B.
The Irony!
I guess we can call this stuff Transparent Palladium. This makes me happy as if it becomes mainstream, a good friend of mine has even better job security at the mine he works. Yay science!
The Irony!
I guess we can call this stuff Transparent Palladium. This makes me happy as if it becomes mainstream, a good friend of mine has even better job security at the mine he works. Yay science!
Classy bit of journalism there. Didn't it occur to you to try to find out what it means? All you had to say is that it's more flexible and therefore less brittle than glass, so it's less likely to break.Andy Chalk said:
I see a lot of this lazy reporting on science stories here on the Escapist. An especially bad example was Friday's piece on DNA replication by what the writer referred to as "a bunch of quantum stuff which I'm just going to call 'magic'". I'm not saying the research in question was the paragon of credibility, but come on, it should be allowed to stand or fall on its merits rather than be strawmanned into something that sounds completely ridiculous. The scary thing is that a lot of people leaving comments seem to accept the writer's caricature of the research as an accurate account of what the scientists are doing.
I suppose that journalism like this, with generous support from Hollywood science, is the reason I heard a couple people on the bus the other day ranting about how scientists are just a bunch of nuts running around making stuff up, and whining about the fact that Pluto is no longer a planet just because the scientists decided to be mean to it... or something. Hell, they even said the only reason they liked Pluto in the first place is that it shared the name of a Disney character. They asked just who "that guy" thought he was, to demote Pluto.
First off, he's Niel DeGrasse Frickin' Tyson, and he can kick your butt either intellectually or physically, or both at the same time. Don't mess with him. Besides, if you looked at why Pluto was demoted, you'd see that the demoters had very good reasons for doing so. Second, science is the direct opposite of "just making stuff up". No idea in science survives for any length of time unless it can withstand the attempts of hundreds of the smartest people in the world trying for decades to tear it down, even when such ideas solve all the unanswered questions that the old ideas have failed to. See the opposition to the theories of Plate Tectonics and Quantum Mechanics for examples, or even the idea that the Earth orbits the sun and not the other way around.
And it works. Science is the reason you don't know anyone who's died of smallpox, or even had it or polio in the first place. It's given you computers and game consoles and the internet, and the games to play on them. It's given you your cars and your cell phones. Cell phones, by the way, are courtesy of quantum mechanics, for those who think modern physics no longer does anything useful. For a more recent example, the latest medical scanners use particles originally synthesized in those particle accelerators the press has made you so fearful of.
Even after all it has done for humanity, it seems that science is a very popular cultural punching bag. At worst, science classes are often in danger of being forced to teach things that are not science in order to satisfy the whims of an ancient, discredited, but still widely held belief system trying desperately to maintain its relevance. Many times, it is simply mocked in entertainment and lazily written news stories. Most times, it is completely ignored by those whom it has helped, even saved. The first man to be exonerated by DNA evidence never thought to thank the researchers who developed the technology that saved his life. He thanked God instead.
A society that disregards science will eventually fail to thrive. Baghdad was once the intellectual capital of the world, naming most of the stars in the sky and developing the mathematics that runs our software and ensures that our bridges remain standing, while Europe was in a state that Monty Python and others have represented as people pretty much wallowing around in dung while mumbling incoherently. While it wasn't really that bad, it may as well have been compared to what was happening in the Middle East. But, once the religious leaders of the time decided that it was a sin to say that Allah or anything he made was constrained by laws or patterns of behavior, and the prominence of science in Middle Eastern culture came crashing down, the area became a backwater that has remained a disgrace to its past glory to this day.
The US seems inclined to follow the Middle East's example today, as many in this country seem to feel it is unacceptable to teach children things that contradict the Bible, no matter how many decades of research say they are true. If they succeed, and the booming bioindustry and other science-based industries flourish in every developed country except for the US, and American graduates just can't seem to get hired into those jobs, I doubt they will see a link between their country's slide into economic irrelevance and their misguided priorities. I suppose they'll continue to insist that they're NUMBER ONE!!! and the bestest cuntry evar, completely unaware of the fact that they are one of the main reasons that that is not the case. It is similar to how they insist we are not related to animals and yet, through their fear-driven, extremist response to truth, provide compelling if not particularly quantitative evidence that, indeed, we are. Some more closely than others.
Just a few things that were on my mind when the writer of this article dropped a piece of straw on my back.
I remind everyone that a 'glass' in a material sense is different than a glass that your drink out of or glass windows. I can make you a 'glass' of butter with enough liquid nitrogen... but, the fact that Palladium is being used is good since Nickel and Platinum have the same type of properties and could be substituted in time.
This is great news.
This is great news.
Turtleboy1017 said:
Thank you for letting me know I wasn't the only one who snapped into Mass Effect mode for a moment when that part came up.SilentHunter7 said:
I read thought your entire post (nice rant, BTW) and this was in my mind the entire time:McMullen said:
That's pretty cool. I'd like to see a building made entirely of glass or an RPG deflecting off a Humvee window. Hell, a regular pain of glass that's now bulletproof would be cool.
I'm a bit suspicious about the plastic deformation rather than elastic deformation. It tends to mean that the glass can withstand impact but will not revert back to the original form.
Also wonder how the glass deals with prolonged compression. Seems to me that if they've increased the plasticity that it's probably easier to warp than other glass.
Still, if used in conjunction with another material (say bonded to another brittle glass) we could get some really tough stuff.
Also wonder how the glass deals with prolonged compression. Seems to me that if they've increased the plasticity that it's probably easier to warp than other glass.
Still, if used in conjunction with another material (say bonded to another brittle glass) we could get some really tough stuff.
I could have sworn that was raritanium, but oh well.Turtleboy1017 said:
OT: Yeah, but now instead of gonig through your windowshield, you go all over it, leading to a very sticky situation.
Seeing as your character can break diamonds with his bare hands, I doubt anything could stand up to him.SquirrelPants said:
No more twin tower type scares for the world! Hooray!SL33TBL1ND said:
More like the glass will bend, then, in a real life event remeniscent of slap-stick comedy, it will launch itself across the room. Eyes will be lost! Lost I say!acer840 said:
The worst part about religious fanatics: they read something this brilliant, it makes them feel justifiably stupid, and then they just turn that into anger at the one who upset them.McMullen said:
I beg to differ! As a metallurgical and materials engineer, I know precisely what that means. It means that it has a large amount of plastic deformation, and assumedly very little elastic deformation, which means while it may not suffer brittle cracking, any deformation will be permanent. And the title given this article is misleading--a glass that's stronger than steel in what regard, and what steel? Is it's elastic modulus higher? It's shear modulus? It's tensile? Are we discussing a 1080 steel? 1045? 1211? Is it a high/low carbon steel that we're comparing the glass to, or is it a steel alloyed with other metals to increase it's arbitrary and untested value of "strong"?Andy Chalk said:
And, is this glass anisotropic, or do we have to align it a certain way? Because if it is anisotropic, then it's uses will be even further limited and specialized, as the gentleman below me indicates. Equate this substance more to concrete that is reinforced with rebar, only instead of concrete it's glass, and instead of rebar it happens to be palladium. And understanding the nature of composites, I can already see problems with anisotropy, it's tensile modulus, and its readily-plastically deformed nature, all of which lead me to believe that, while great for safety glass, this would be terrible construction material.
Couple that with the fact that palladium is expensive as all hell, and therefore even less likely to be mass produced. You want a good, hard, non-fracturing glass? Add heavy alkalis, that should do the trick. You want space glass? Don't worry about it, there's only about an atmosphere of pressure inside your ship pressing out, and none on the outside pressing in.
SpAc3man said:
My thoughts exactly, bravo sir.Jordi said:
That said, way to find yet another use for our rarest metal guys. I mean this is cool and all but this is already one of the most expensive materials there is.