Very interesting.
But can you make anything useful out of that ultra-strong glass? Can something similar be made from other materials? Solving mysteries is nice, but without some practical benefit, it is not much more than a mind game (I could call it something else, but I’m trying to be polite).
Nope. The problem is the high-strength portion is coupled to a high-fragility portion; the instant any part of the glass breaks at all, the whole thing practically explodes.
I asked those same questions.
Could a drop made of iron be suddenly so strong that it could defy known materials at high speeds?...............
Check out this video at approximately 2:00
Bullet vs Prince Rupert’s Drop at 150,000 fps - Smarter Every Day 165
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24q80ReMyq0
Science is the garden of knowledge from which engineers harvest inventions.
Tempered glass windows and doors already makes use of the understanding of compression and tension to create products which shatter into small harmless bits instead of large, pointed knifelike shards.
The understanding described in the article might make it possible to design car windows of tempered glass (which they do now) but with a built in mechanism to shatter the glass without the use of a tool. Some people carry a tool now to use during an accident to free themselves from a car by breaking a window. Instead, one could have a "Push button in order to break glass" mechanism near the door handle, basically building in the tool.