Glass

Researchers at Carnegie Science have developed an ultrahard diamond glass. Made entirely of crushed “soccerballs” of carbon, the new material also has high thermal conductivity and could find use in electronics.

As sunlight passes through a building's windows it can cause indoor temperatures to rise, to the point that the structure's air conditioning system has to be used. A new window material, however, blocks incoming heat while staying mostly transparent.

By deploying cutting-edge lasers, scientists at the University of Southampton have achieved a 5D optical data storage breakthrough that offers both incredible density and long-term archiving capabilities.

Material scientists in China experimenting with carbon in its many forms have conjured up a form of glass so hard that it can scratch the surface of a diamond, while also having the ability to act as semiconductor.

Plastic is a lot easier to work with than glass, which is one of the reasons it's used so much more often. That may be about to change, though, thanks to a new process that allows glass to be injection-molded – just like plastic.

Mundane as it may seem, glass is a surprisingly mysterious material. Now scientists at the University of Konstanz have identified a new state of matter called liquid glass, which has some unusual properties.

Although fire-resistant windows do already exist, they contain a carcinogenic gel, plus their production generates a lot of waste. A new technology that works in the same basic fashion, however, is claimed to be much safer and less wasteful.

Of all the materials that can be 3D-printed, glass is still one of the most challenging to work with. Scientists at the ETH Zurich research center are working on changing that, though, with a new and reportedly better glass-printing technique.

Microsoft and Warner Bros. have crammed the 1978 movie Superman onto a silica glass slide the size of a drink coaster. This tough new medium is designed to last centuries, surviving punishment that would ruin film or magnetic drives.

The number of healthcare-associated urinary tract infections could soon drop dramatically, thanks to the use of special antimicrobial glass.

Scientists have developed a method of bending a single sheet of glass to a 90-degree angle.

The Window Wizard robot is designed to autonomously move across the glass while cleaning it.