New, super-strong glass created by Japanese researchers may help keep your phone, and your wallet, from shattering. The team used alumina to form the glass, which has some of the strongest chemical bonds on Earth. The only problem was that murky crystals formed during production, obscuring the glass.
The solution? A production method called aerodynamic levitation: the process uses oxygen gas to levitate a heated mixture of glass and alumina in the air, which was then mixed with lasers. It produced transparent, reflective, and most importantly, incredibly hard glass. If they can figure out a way to scale up production, your butterfingers may become less of a liability.
