WHY SCIENTISTS ARE MAKING TRANSPARENT WOOD

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Transparent wood could soon find uses as super-strong screens for smartphones, glowing light fixtures, and structural features like color-changing windows. The material outperforms plastic and glass in tests measuring how easily materials fracture or break under pressure. It is a far better insulator than glass, so windows made out of the material could help buildings retain heat or keep it out. For now, transparent wood still has a higher environmental impact than glass, but scaling up manufacturing and embracing greener production schemes could help make it more sustainable.