What a Pane: Ultra-Thin, Flexible Glass Unveiled

The sharp scientists at the Corning company have come up with a clear winner: ultra-thin glass that bends. The "Willow Glass" unveiled at an industry trade show in Boston was as thin as a piece of paper, and can be even thinner. It's designed to cover ever-skinnier gadgets like cell phones, or computer tablets, which we may one day be able to roll up and stash in our pockets. The new glass was made with Corning's "fusion" process in which the ingredients are melted, and then used to produce a continuous sheet of material that can be rolled out in a mechanism similar to a printing press. Willow Glass could soon replace much of Corning's Gorilla Glass, which currently covers some half a billion devices worldwide, notes the BBC. (More Gorilla Glass stories.)