Shattered smartphone screens may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists in Japan say they've created a new type of glass stronger than most metals and nearly as tough as steel.

The glass is made by infusing silicon dioxide with alumina, an aluminum oxide. Traditional glass-making technologies complicate the introduction of alumina during the formation process, as the silicon dioxide crystallizes when it makes surface contact with a solid, like the alumina container.

Scientists at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science solved this problem by developing a way to push alumina into the silicon dioxide using gases. They call the container-less process "aerodynamic levitation."

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