Glass Nanolattice Structures Four Times Strength but Five Times Lower in Density than Steel | NextBigFuture.com

By building a structure out of DNA and then coating it with glass, a research team led by Oleg Gang has created a very strong material with very low density.Gang and colleagues report that by building a structure out of DNA and then coating it with glass, they have created a very strong material with very low density. Glass might seem a surprising choice, as it shatters easily. However, glass usually shatters because of a flaw–such as a crack, scratch, or missing atoms–in its structure. A flawless cubic centimeter of glass can withstand 10 tons of pressure, more than three times the pressure that imploded the Oceangate Titan submersible near the Titanic this summer.