"What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminum into this exotic new material in a single step by using this very powerful laser," Wark said. "For a brief period the sample looks and behaves in every way like a new form of matter. In certain respects, the way it reacts is as though we had changed every aluminum atom into silicon: it's almost as surprising http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090729/sc_livescience/scientistsclaimnewstateofmattercreated Lets hope they dont figure out how to make cheap gold any time soon!
Funny thing is I was reading about metamaterial research this morning. Have to wonder if Ward's experiment will aide research in this area? I read a different link on the experiment so I have not seen what the end result was of the material after the transparent phase.
star trek is coming it seems... transparent aluminum was brought up in star trek 4 for you non trekies
Yep my first thought was Star Trek 4 as well. And my second thought was because of the movie reference, "I would have thought SOMEONE would have tried to make it before now, BECAUSE of the movie reference."
They call the state solid density plasma, which is different from the gaseous plasma caused by slower high energy lasers ( not femtosecond durations). Some of the scientific papers I can't access with out a subscription ( like the recent coin sites) indicates that experiments are being done on "black metals" , maybe classified usage, as well as noble metals ( hmmm). Jim
Hmmm..transparent aluminum but we can't think of a way for "inexperienced" collectors to safely spit on coins.
Now all we need is a matter/ anti matter injector and we can warp to some planet made out of precious metals and be rich.
You guys might want to look up aluminum oxynitride, this is a product that has been around for several years, it is known by the trade name ALON. This is the stuff used on Star Trek and back in 2005 it wa sbeing tested for use as windows in military vehicles. It can stop a 50 cal round where advanced bullet proof glass cannot. It is completely transparent and is formed by combining aluminum with oxygen and nitrogen. This is transparent aluminum. The stuff being discussed in the link posted is completely different, as they say - a new form of matter. And potentially a much bigger deal.
