Transparent Aluminum Oxynitride - The future of glass

In yet another example of how military innovation creates the best of the best, the Air Force is testing new transparent armor.

This is too cool. vastly more scratch resistant than glass, and much stronger, this stuff has potential to make much better automotive windshields, industrial armor (trying to observe a machine through a piece of old, scratched and cracked safety glass is no picnic)...the possibilities are great. Sure the stuff's expensive now, but it will be further refined and developed. After all, when the laser was new, nobody had any idea of what to do with it.