Glass plays an important role in countless aspects of everyday life. From safe food containers to heat-blocking building windows, energy-saving insulation to lightweight wind turbine blades, durable solar power reflectors, to safe nuclear waste storage, glass's versatility contributes to the health of people and the environment. Ubiquitous as it is today, glass has only reached a fraction of its possible potential. Typical glass applications realise only 0.5% of its lab-tested intrinsic strength of up to 14 gigapascals (GPa) (2M/PSI), which is higher than that of steel. This potential strength comes with a light weight; glass is less dense than aluminium and more than two thirds less dense than steel. Advancing the real-world strength of glass to just one tenth its potential would open a new world of products and benefits, which are discussed here.
