this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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233
Why scientists are making transparent wood / The results are amazing, that a piece of wood can be as strong as glass (arstechnica.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Why scientists are making transparent wood / The results are amazing, that a piece of wood can be as strong as glass::The material is being exploited for smartphone screens, insulated windows, and more.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Not seeing how windows would be a good use. We already have safety glass and materials to make glass is more plentiful. Display screens make sense if the material ends up as hard as glass but won’t shatter. That would be fantastic.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It might be a better insulator than glass

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only issue with that is, it takes a ton of resources to make, yeah?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Better than glass, though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is it? We've been making glass for centuries and it's the one thing that is consistently recycled. You would have to grow the wood (resources), transport the wood (resources), change the wood's properties (resources) and there is no recycling in place.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You would have to make the glass, transport it and make it into window pane, so not much different.

Wood is compostable. But I wonder if making it transparent makes it something you wouldn't want to grow food with.

Edit: they plan to add epoxy resin which would make the wood something you definitely don't want to compost and would probably also leach EAs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Isn't it amazing what information you can glean from reading the article?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It might be a better insulator? Tipple pane glass is fine until the seal breaks and gas leaks out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

After 50 years the frame is likely done for anyway so it doesn't really make much sense to make triple-panes more durable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Hadn’t thought of that angle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We're running out of sand.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No we aren’t. Silica is one of the most plentiful materials on earth.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Yes, we ARE running out! So much so that people are getting violent https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is-running-out-of-sand