TRANSPARENT BAMBOO: A FIREPROOF AND WATERPROOF ALTERNATIVE TO GLASS

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Chinese scientists have turned bamboo into a transparent material that is resistant to fire and water and suppresses smoke. The team used the same method used to turn wood transparent to turn the bamboo transparent - bamboo's internal structure and chemical composition is very similar to wood. The resulting transparent bamboo can be used as a building material. When used as a substrate for perovskite solar cells, it acts like a light management layer, boosting cells' power conversion efficiency by 15.29%.