News; US scientists invent transparent wood that's even stronger than glass and more radiant

Scientists in the US have managed to make wood completely transparent as well as stronger and more insulating than glass, while still being more biodegradable than plastic.

Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park made the wood see-through by first boiling it in a bath of water, sodium hydroxide and other chemicals for two hours in order to remove a molecule called lignin.

Removing lignin takes away the brownish colour of the wood, so all that remains is a colourless material. Then, the researchers poured epoxy over the block of wood in order to strengthen it, and they noted that the process made the wood between four to six times stronger than before.

The structures in a tree trunk, and therefore wood, work in a completely different way to glass and plastic, and the wood features a series of natural channels running throughout it that originally pumped water and ions throughout the tree. In the newly treated material, these channels now direct light.