Glass
hideGlass generally refers to hard, brittle, transparent material, such as those used for windows, many bottles, or eyewear. Examples of such solid materials include, but are not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, isinglass (Muscovy-glass), or aluminium oxynitride. In the technical sense, glass is an inorganic product of fusion which has been cooled through the glass transition to a rigid condition without crystallizing. Many glasses contain silica as their main component and glass former.
In the scientific sense the term glass is often extended to all amorphous solids (and melts that easily form amorphous solids), including plastics, resins, or other silica-free amorphous solids. In addition, besides traditional melting techniques, any other means of preparation are considered, such as ion implantation, and the sol-gel method. However, glass science and physics commonly includes only inorganic amorphous solids, while plastics and similar organics are covered by polymer science, biology and further scientific disciplines.
Glass plays an essential role in science and industry. The optical and physical properties of glass make it suitable for applications such as flat glass, container glass, optics and optoelectronics material, laboratory equipment, thermal insulator (glass wool), reinforcement fiber (glass-reinforced plastic, glass fiber reinforced concrete), and art.
The term glass developed in the late Roman Empire. It was in the Roman glassmaking center at Trier, Germany, that the late-Latin term glesum originated, probably from a Germanic word for a transparent, lustrous substance.
For more information about Glass, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with glass
Glass you can build with: Metallic glass that's stronger and lasts longer
Mar 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The normal structure of metals is crystalline. Glass, on the other hand, is amorphous. But it's possible to make amorphous forms of metal, metallic glasses, which can be remarkably strong, ...
Physical chemist imitates structures found in nature
Dec 05, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As a graduate student, Harvard physical chemist Joanna Aizenberg acquired a passionate curiosity about — of all things — sponges. She particularly liked the ones made of glass, whose apparent ...
Researcher Develops Process for Making 'Unbreakable' Glass
Apr 03, 2009 |
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Wine glasses that don’t shatter? Baby bottles that don’t break? Coffee mugs that last generations? All are possible with a new process for strengthening glass and ceramics developed by an Alfred University researcher.
Storing a Lightning Bolt in Glass for Portable Power
May 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Materials researchers at Penn State University have reported the highest known breakdown strength for a bulk glass ever measured. Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines ...
Carbon Nanotubes Toughen a Common Plastic
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A research group from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel has discovered that adding carbon nanotubes to a widely used commercial plastic can greatly strengthen it. Their work is one ...
Physicists develop multifunctional storage device for light
Jul 29, 2009 |
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Light is intangible and, in addition, it travels at great velocity. Nevertheless, it can be confined to a very small space by controllably inserting light into a microscopic container surrounded by reflective ...
University lab demonstrates 3-D printing in glass
Sep 24, 2009 |
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A team of engineers and artists working at the University of Washington's Solheim Rapid Manufacturing Laboratory has developed a way to create glass objects using a conventional 3-D printer. The technique ...
Sharp Launches Mass Production of 2nd-Generation Thin-Film Solar Cells
Oct 01, 2008 |
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Sharp Corporation has completed installation of a new 2nd-generation thin-film solar cell production line at its Katsuragi Plant (Katsuragi City, Nara Prefecture) using large-size glass substrates measuring ...
Ancient diatoms lead to new technology for solar energy
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 08, 2009 |
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Engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to use an ancient life form to create one of the newest technologies for solar energy, in systems that may be surprisingly simple to build compared to existing silicon-based ...
Beating the back-up blues
Apr 03, 2009 |
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That sinking feeling when your hard disk starts screeching and you haven't backed up your holiday photos is a step closer to becoming a thing of the past thanks to research into a new kind of computer memory.
Physicists Find a World of Motion In the Mystery of Aging Glass
Sep 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists super-cooled a liquid into glass in order to observe the slowing of particles. It's a material that still perplexes researchers despite thousands of years of household and industrial use.
A new 'Pyrex' nanoparticle
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Sep 07, 2008 |
4.1 / 5 (11) |
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Researchers in Switzerland have developed a new method to fabricate borosilicate glass nanoparticles. Used in microfluidic systems, these "Pyrex"-like nanoparticles are more stable when subjected to temperature ...
Quantum doughnuts slow and freeze light at will: 'fast computing & slow glass'
Mar 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Research led by the University of Warwick has found a way to use doughnuts shaped by-products of quantum dots to slow and even freeze light, opening up a wide range of possibilities from reliable and effective ...
3D TV -- Without the Glasses (w/ Video)
Oct 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Even with "active shutter" 3D technology for television sets, the wearing of special glasses is still required in order to get the proper experience. They aren't those red and blue or red and ...
Light at the speed of a bicycle and much more
Sep 09, 2009 |
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The speed of light, 300 million metres per second, was long thought an immutable constant and has defined our understanding of matter and energy but recent research in the area of optics and photonics is proving ...
