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Scientists in Japan say they have found a way to create a new type of glass that’s almost as strong as steel and nearly unbreakable.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science have published findings of their experiments in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, a breakthrough that could change commercial use of glass.
Glass as we currently know it, is based on silica (silicon dioxide), the main component of sand. The innovative method that the Tokyo team has come up with uses a different process for creating safer, indestructible glass. The secret ingredient used in creating the durable glass is alumina, an oxide of aluminum. Mixed with silicon dioxide, it results in an exceptionally tough glass.
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Japanese Scientists Invent Nearly Unbreakable Glass
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Cum tacent, clamant. When they are silent, they shout. -Cicero
(Score: 4, Disagree) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 09 2015, @06:35AM
I've watched artisanal crystal makers working. There is no comparison between crystal and glass. And, what these people are describing is not "glass".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c_8ekySU3c [youtube.com]
http://www.michaelcfina.com/homedecor/learn/stemware/howtellcrystalfromglass/ [michaelcfina.com]
How to Tell Crystal From Glass
Here are some quick tips on how to distinguish classic crystal from plain glass.
Hold up a glass to the light. If the glass acts as a prism and you see a rainbow you are holding crystal. If not, it is just plain glass.
When struck, crystal produces a musical ring. Glass does not.
If you wet your finger and run it around the rim of a crystal glass it will also produce a musical tone.
Crystal can be worked thinner than glass, so if the rim of a piece is exceptionally thin it's probably crystal.
If you compare two glasses of the same size, the crystal glass will be heavier.
Glass typically has sharp cuts, while crystal will have clean, rounded cuts.
(Score: 4, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Monday November 09 2015, @06:44AM
What are you on about, Runaway? Too late at night for you? This is glass, Aluminum Oxide glass. What you are talking about is silicon dioxide glass,only with a significant amount of lead added. Don't see that advertised much lately. But Crystal is still just glass! And this new stuff is glass! Solid State Solution type glass. So can you return us to our regularly scheduled discussion of reverse discrimination against gamerguys?
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Monday November 09 2015, @07:00AM
There is no comparison between crystal and glass.
Except that crystal [oxforddictionaries.com] is glass with the properties you mention:
Highly transparent glass with a high refractive index:
As Aristarchus notes, leaded glass which has these properties, thus is crystal.
And, what these people are describing is not "glass".
Actually it is, even if you go by the idea that glass should have silica in it since this is half silica and half alumina. There are also non silica glasses [ceramics.org]. And generally any solid which has an amorphous structure with a transition from hard, brittle solid to soft state near the melting point of the substance (the "glass transition" [wikipedia.org]), is considered a glass.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @07:31AM
Lead glass is not crystal, by most accounts.
The best way to tell whether something is glass or crystal is to smash it with a hammer and study the shards with a magnifying glass. Crystals will break in geometric patterns with visible polygons; some big, some small. Broken glass will have lots of curved areas, somewhat like the windy surface of a lake.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 09 2015, @12:39PM
Using a meaningless marketing phrase like "crystal" in a chemistry story couldn't possibly be chaotic, could it?
The best analogy I can come up with is "billet" exists in the minds of marketers and consumers, usually they're talking about stuff machined out of a single piece of bar stock but occasionally you'll run into mystifying marketing terms like "cast billet" or "hammer forged billet" or "welded billet" meaning god only knows what. Billet is for metalheads like star trek technobabble is for engineers or CSI image analysis is or graphics artists.
(Score: 5, Informative) by moondrake on Monday November 09 2015, @09:21AM
hmmm...
Hold up a glass to the light. If the glass acts as a prism and you see a rainbow you are holding crystal. If not, it is just plain glass.
Except when the glass is cut in such a way as to act like a prism
When struck, crystal produces a musical ring. Glass does not.
My wine glasses do, they are definitely not made out of crystal.
If you wet your finger and run it around the rim of a crystal glass it will also produce a musical tone.
See above.
Crystal can be worked thinner than glass, so if the rim of a piece is exceptionally thin it's probably crystal.
depends a lot to what kind of Crystal you refer to. Lead glass for example cannot be worked thin.
If you compare two glasses of the same size, the crystal glass will be heavier.
Again depends on the type of glass. Crystal glasses are mostly just mixtures of glass and some other materials (lead oxide, sodium oxide, etc). The properties vary a lot.
Glass typically has sharp cuts, while crystal will have clean, rounded cuts.
Again depends on the type of glass. Apart from the price (you should have listed that), this is why I know my wine glasses are glass!
(Score: 3, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Monday November 09 2015, @12:49PM
Both can be transparent. BOOM!