Glassy Metals May Be Materials of the Future

They're harder, stronger, and basically just better.

By Brad Lemley
Apr 21, 2004 12:00 AMApr 18, 2023 6:06 PM

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The wispy metal strip in my hands is 8 inches long, 1 inch wide, and as thin as aluminum foil.

“Try to tear it,” says William Johnson, a materials science professor at Caltech in Pasadena.

I pull—first gently, but soon with all my might. No go.

“See if you can cut this,” suggests Johnson’s postgraduate assistant Jason Kang, handing me a mirror-bright piece of the same metal. It’s an inch long, a quarter inch wide, and thinner than a dime. I bear down with a heavy-duty pair of wire cutters. The metal will not cut. I try again, squeezing with both hands until my fingers ache. Nothing.

But the most amazing act in this show is yet to come.

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