Transparent Aluminum

Those of you, um, enthusiastic enough to remember Star Trek IV may recall the scene embedded above. If not, let me set up the clip: The crew of the Enterprise has gone into the past to retrieve some whales, OK? And take them "back to the future," to coin a phrase. But Scotty has a problem: He needs stuff to build a giant whale tank on the ship, but he has no goods to trade with, because, you know, in the future they only work to better themselves and nobody but a Ferengi would stoop to carrying money around. So Scotty barters his knowledge of 24th-century materials technology with a 20th-century engineer, who agrees to make him what he needs in exchange. The 24th-century material in question is "transparent aluminum," and today I'm here to tell you: That future has arrived. Sort of. Pretty much.

via MAKE | Transparent Aluminum