Scientists made see-through wood that's stronger than glass

This is pretty interesting and could replace your home windows as a more energy effective form to let light in.Also could have numerous other applications and as alternative to some plastic.

I look forward to see through forests. Although , right now they are limited to a 5x5 block.

It wood [] be cool to have all the walls opaque in a home just enough to let sunlight in to your home but not opaque enough to disrupt privacy or energy concerns.


This also explains why we can't see the forest in mars, clearly the martians are far ahead of us in this technology.


www.engadget.com...

a reply to: interupt42

This is most definitely interesting however I would prefer if we deterred ourselves from chopping down even more trees.

a reply to: interupt42

Interesting, though, we are already clearing forest for paper production and such, i doubt the forest could support another wood product.

a reply to: angryhulk

This is most definitely interesting however I would prefer if we deterred ourselves from chopping down even more trees.

Yeah that immediately came to mind as well.

The coolest invention until transparent aluminum.

Oh great ,now we can have see through paper to write on ...Never a need to turn the pages ever again :>)

What happens if your trapped in a house with a fire...can you break the wood window easily ?

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: interupt42

Interesting, though, we are already clearing forest for paper production and such, i doubt the forest could support another wood product.

Planting and cutting forests sustainably (forestry) has come a long way in the last 10 years and sustainable forests can be traced back more than a thousand years in places around the world. Wood is an excellent resource and most people working with it are actually helping forests not destroying them. It really is a political problem, we need to force nations like Brazil to adopt sustainable forestry laws... Our leaders should act more strongly in terms of sanctions also.


Thanks OP, this is awesome and I hope they can scale it up and make it affordable... Many a time I've had to work with broken glass, it can literally be torture to clean up. This stuff although not as friendly as glass due to the chemicals. It will be a damn sight safer I can imagine, especially on large-scale clean-ups.

originally posted by: Meldionne1
What happens if your trapped in a house with a fire...can you break the wood window easily ?

Does it matter?

You should be able to open the egress sized (mandatory requirement) windows, and get out without breaking anything.

originally posted by: Meldionne1
What happens if your trapped in a house with a fire...can you break the wood window easily ?

Probably not.

It's basically see-through, reinforced wood.

Quote from article:

The researchers first boiled the wood in water, sodium hydroxide and other chemicals for roughly two hours. This flushes out lignin, the molecule responsible for giving wood its color. The team then poured epoxy over the block which makes the wood four to five times stronger,

Glass is so cheap and easy to produce, why bother trying to replace it with clear wood?
Not to mention there are already plastics with these properties.

a reply to: Meldionne1

Can you break a double glazed window easily? Nope.

originally posted by: Meldionne1
What happens if your trapped in a house with a fire...can you break the wood window easily ?

Double hung windows can also be easily removed by unhooking the catches and removing the entire top or bottom.

This does not sound economically viable for day to day use.. seems more like an application for specialist use.

To use as glass seems to be an over engineered and costly way to solve a problem that doesn't exist..

Sheesh, wood you believe it!

No I don't want a transparent hoose, just windys thanks..... Maybe you could sit all day watching the termites slowly devouring them.

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: interupt42

Interesting, though, we are already clearing forest for paper production and such, i doubt the forest could support another wood product.

That's not quite true. I mean it happens, but it doesn't have to. Some of the largest production of wood comes from eucalyptus trees which are one of the fastest growing species in existence. In fact you it can be beneficial in some ways because you are constantly growing massive swaths of forest from it.

Some eucalyptus species have attracted attention from horticulturists, global development researchers, and environmentalists because of desirable traits such as being fast-growing sources of wood, producing oil that can be used for cleaning and as a natural insecticide, or an ability to be used to drain swamps and thereby reduce the risk of malaria.

Eucalyptus is the most common short fibre source for pulpwood to make pulp.[32] Eucalyptus globulus (in temperate climates) and the hybrid of Eucalyptus urophylla x Eucalyptus grandis (in tropical climates) are the most used varieties in papermaking.The fibre length of Eucalyptus is relatively short and uniform with low coarseness compared with other hardwoods commonly used as pulpwood.

Not sure if it could be used for something like this, but it's not a guaranteed negative impact. The only controversy with Eucalyptus is the water intake. But then that is an issue that needs to be addressed worldwide as it is.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Meldionne1

Can you break a double glazed window easily? Nope.

Yeah you can. The area I grew up in frequently had their windows 'plugged' i.e. a small rock thrown through them in the middle of the night by a bunch of pre-teen nutcases high on sugar.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

The coolest invention until transparent aluminum.

We've got that. It's going to (probably...) be used for large caliber bulletproof windows in combat vehicles.

And you can use optically imperfect bits for armor. Something we've been working on off and on...might as well get some use out of the culls.

originally posted by: Bedlam
We've got that.

Hopefully Montgomery Scott got credit on the patent.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Bedlam
We've got that.

Hopefully Montgomery Scott got credit on the patent.

Fraunhofer Institute, IIRC.

And some guys at Redstone have some too, maybe.

eta: Behold!