Posted on 07/27/2009 11:22:27 AM PDT by saganite
Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.
In the journal Nature Physics an international team, led by Oxford University scientists, report that a short pulse from the FLASH laser ‘knocked out’ a core electron from every aluminium atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure. This turned the aluminium nearly invisible to extreme ultraviolet radiation.
''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before,’ said Professor Justin Wark of Oxford University’s Department of Physics, one of the authors of the paper. ‘Transparent aluminium is just the start. The physical properties of the matter we are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of what is going on during the creation of 'miniature stars' created by high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth.’
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
That was “How quaint!”
SCOTT: Well, this a fine place you have here, Doctor Nichols.
NICHOLS: Thank you. I must say, Professor, your knowledge of engineering is most impressive.
McCOY: Back home, we call him the miracle worker.
NICHOLS: Indeed. ...May I offer you something, gentlemen?
SCOTT: Doctor Nichols, I may be able to offer something to you.
NICHOLS: Yes?
SCOTT: I notice you’re still working with polymers.
NICHOLS: Still? What else would I be working with?
SCOTT: Ah, what else indeed? I’ll put it another way. How thick would a piece of your plexiglass need to be, at sixty feet by ten feet to withstand the pressure of eighteen thousand cubic feet of water?
NICHOLS: That’s easy, six inches. We carry stuff that big in stock.
SCOTT: Aye, I’ve noticed. Now suppose, ...just suppose, ...I was to show you a way to manufacture a wall that would do the same job but be only one inch thick. Would that be worth something to you, eh?
NICHOLS: You’re joking?
McCOY: Perhaps the professor could use your computer.
NICHOLS: Please.
SCOTT: Computer... Computer!
(McCoy hands him the computer mouse which Scott tries to use as a microphone)
SCOTT: Ah! Hello computer?
NICHOLS: Just use the keyboard.
SCOTT: The keyboard. ...How quaint.
(Scott rapidly types a formula into the computer that appears on the monitor screen)
NICHOLS: Transparent aluminum?
SCOTT: That’s the ticket, laddie.
NICHOLS: It would take years just to figure out the dynamics of this matrix.
McCOY: Yes, but you’d be rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
SCOTT: So, is it worth something to you? Or should I just punch up ‘clear’.
NICHOLS: No! No! (a female employee comes into the office) ...Not now Madeline! ...What exactly did you have in mind?
McCOY: Well, a moment alone, please. ...Do you realise of course, if we give him the formula, we’re altering the future.
SCOTT: Why? How do we know he didn’t invent the thing!
McCOY: Yeah!
The Oxford team, along with their international colleagues, focused all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. At such high intensities the aluminium turned transparent.
Crikey! Wouldn't you?
Double Dumb A$$ on you!
And why the H@ll not?
(great movie!)
Sounds like we will be producing and using this Transparent Aluminum as soon as we can build a few hundred nuclear power plants to power up those Flash lasers to mass produce this stuff.
I'm not a gemologist, but aren't precious gems just partially aluminum? Don't they bond with carbon in some kind of crystalline structure, refracting the light in varying ways to create the perception of color?
Partially true. Aluminum with Oxygen. Al2O3. Single crystal. And you can have nearly tranparent polycrystalline Al2O3 too. And one more, AlON is Aluminum OxyNitride is transparent and like Sapphire, used for missle nose cones and armor.
This is just what I need for my BMW R100RS. Last week I replaced the old charging system on the bike with a more powerful after-market system. The new alternator, which sticks out the front of the engine behind the front wheel, looks almost exactly like that heart-insert thing that Tony Stark/Iron Man has in his chest in the movie (only without the “glow”).
I was thinking as I installed it on the bike that it was way too cool-looking to cover up; that it should be “out there for all to see”. But, since the alternator needs protection from the weather and road grime I had no choice but to re-install the cast aluminum front engine cover and hide it from sight.
But NOW, along come these Oxford scientists with the perfect solution to my dilemma.
I wonder, if I were to send them an engine cover for purposes of making a mold, if they would be willing to make me a clear engine cover. It’s worth a try, right?
Finally!
I’ll be able to see what all those leftovers in the fridge are now!
Wave the Sails!
posted: 18 October 2005 05:01 pm ET
A new type of transparent armor made of aluminum could one day replace glass in military vehicles.
The product is called aluminum oxynitride. It is being tested by the Army and the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio.
The material is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability, according to an Army statement issued this week. It performs better than the multilayered glass products currently in use, and its about half the weight. It is virtually scratch-resistant.
"The substance itself is light-years ahead of glass," said 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, who heads the research.
Glass is still used in the new process, being sandwhiched between an outer layer of the polished aluminum oxynitride and a polymer backing.
.50-caliber test
In a test this summer, the product held up to a .50-caliber sniper's rifle with amor-piercing bullets. Traditional glass armor did not survive the test.
------- snip
I gotta watch it again tonight. I’ve got em all, even the bad ones.
Seriously, this process was done back in the 1990’s. We even had discussions and pictures of it here on Free Republic. I have one of the pics archived somewhere in my old backups. It showed a square piece of transparent aluminum mounted in a wooden base, and you could see a lighted candle through it.
Of course, I would like the transparent property of my new engine cover to last more than a few femtoseconds, whatever they are.
I guess it’s back to the drawing board!
Transparent beer.
I’ll be checking back here occasionally for the posted pic.
Yeah, but this one is a new state of matter. So there!
How do we know he didn’t make the stuff.
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