From Fiction to Fact:; Transparent Aluminum

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

From Fiction to Fact : Transparent Aluminum

The Fiction: Star Trek is a wellspring of sci-fi to sci-fact ideas. Take, for example, transparent aluminum. In Star Trek 4, Scotty gives a present day engineer a formula to create transparent aluminum in exchange for building a giant tank to hold a Humpback whale. If you haven’t seen Star Trek 4, you’re probably wondering how they get the whale into the tank, but that’s another sci-fi bit of technology at work.

The Fact: Transparent aluminum exists! In 2009, scientists at Oxford created a transparent form of aluminum by firing a powerful laser at the material. For a brief moment, after blasting it, the material itself transformed. What does that mean? Well, imagine if you could turn lead into gold with just a shot of light. It’s the same thing. Transparent aluminum is just the beginning of what’s possible.