I watched Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in the movie theater when it was first released in 1986. I enjoyed the movie because it was humorous, smart, and didn't take itself too seriously while at the same time included time travel and the issue of whale extinction. One of my favorite moments in the movie was when Scotty needed transparent aluminum to build a tank for the whales they were going to transport on their spaceship. That sounded like such a interesting idea: transparent aluminum!
Much to my delight I was reading today about experiments being conducted to create transparent aluminum.
From the article at Science Daily:
Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.
And further along in the article:
Whilst the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period – an estimated 40 femtoseconds – it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.
What an exciting and interesting line of study into different exotic states of matter!
Once again, what seems unusual and unlikely in science fiction may be a thought or line of study that is going on or may go on in the future and the creativity of scientists can be used by science fiction writers to open our minds just a little into the great possibilities that exist in the world.
HERE is the entire article and a clip from the movie.
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