Transparent aluminum! Would that be worth somethin' to ya, eh?
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/va40HEOLigj5Q7xqsZdtpQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTM0OQ--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/JW0gGYe.GRKh6R9OZ2o4SQ--~B/aD0yMDg7dz00MjA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/08/transparent-aluminum-st4.jpg)
It's hard to say if boffins at Oxford University got their inspiration from Nimoy and Co., but one thing's for sure: they aren't joking about the creation of transparent aluminum. In what can only be described as a breakthrough for the ages, a team of mad scientists across the way have created "a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before" by blasting aluminum walls (around one-inch thick) with brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is "more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city." For approximately 40 femtoseconds, an "invisible effect" is seen, giving the gurus hope that their experiment could lead to new studies in exotic states of matter. For a taste of exactly what we mean, feel free to voice command your PC to jump past the break. Or use the keyboard, if you're feeling quaint.