Transparent Aluminum
Star Trek technical manuals indicate that transparent aluminum is used in various fittings in starships, including exterior ship portals and windows. It was notably mentioned in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Panels of ultra-thick acrylic glass were needed to construct water tanks within their ship's cargo bay for containing two humpback whales and tons of water. However, the Enterprise crew, without money appropriate to the period, found it necessary to barter for the required materials. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott exchanges the chemical formula for transparent aluminum for several sheets of the material from a manufacturer called Plexicorp. When Dr. Leonard McCoy informs Scott that giving Dr. Nichols the formula is altering the future, the engineer responds, "Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" (In the novelization of the film, Scott is aware that Dr. Marcus "Mark" Nichols (Alex Henteloff), the Plexicorp scientist with whom he and McCoy deal, was its "inventor," and concludes that his giving of the formula is a predestination paradox/bootstrap paradox.) The substance is described as being as transparent as glass while possessing the strength and density of high-grade aluminum. It was also mentioned in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "In Theory."
The series' science consultant André Bormanis has concluded that the material would not be a good conductor of electricity.
Aluminium oxynitride is a form of ceramic whose properties are similar to those of the fictional substance seen in Star Trek. It was patented in 1980, and has military applications as bullet-resistant armour, but is too expensive for widespread use.
However, transparent aluminum became another Star Trek fiction turned reality when it was created as a new state of matter by a team of scientists in 2009. A laser pulse removed an electron from every atom without disrupting the crystalline structure.
A group of scientists led by Ralf Röhlsberger at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany, succeeded in turning metal transparent during research in 2012 to create quantum computers.
Read more about this topic: List Of Star Trek Materials, Metals For Starship Construction
Famous quotes containing the words transparent and/or aluminum:
“ethereal, their mauve
almost a transparent gray,
their dark veins
bruise-blue.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“With two sons born eighteen months apart, I operated mainly on automatic pilot through the ceaseless activity of their early childhood. I remember opening the refrigerator late one night and finding a roll of aluminum foil next to a pair of small red tennies. Certain that I was responsible for the refrigerated shoes, I quickly closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure I had put the babies in their cribs instead of the linen closet.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)