As engineers continue to push what is possible for our buildings and gadgets, so too do they find new ways to tweak the properties of glass. Typically, glass is produced by heating minerals to a high temperature then letting them cool, but much of the glass that glistens on the sides of skyscrapers and makes up the screens on smartphones and tablets is made via special production processes that strengthen the material by adding metal. Now a team of Japanese researchers has found a way to add a version of aluminum to the glass using a novel production method, according to a study published last month in Scientific Reports.

To make super-strong glass, the researchers have long set their sights on alumina, an oxidized version of aluminum that happens to possess some of the strongest chemical bonds on Earth.