I don't know if this is actually real or not (it's not 1st April is it...) but if it's real, WOW. Saw this over at GeekNews, which points to a story over on Sci-Fighter, pointing to a german news site...
It would appear that the Scottie's dream in StarTrek of transparent "allow-min'nium" (this is from a european site) is now a reality. It's not clear as crystal, but it's here.
- A ceramic research lab in Dresden, Germany, has developed transparent aluminium by subjecting fine-grained (I'm guessing extremely fine-grained) aluminum to a whopping 1200 degrees Celsius ...the result of which is amzingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of the same thickness (mileage may vary at different measurements, the article didn't say), and see-through.
Needless to say, the Pentagon is quite interested.
News source: SCI-Fighter - Transparent Aluminium now a reality
View: Spiegel Online German site and a bigger picture of the material.
