As the material foundation of human survival, materials are an important symbol of technological and cultural progress, and a precursor to the development of high-tech and social modernization. The history of human social development is also a history of understanding, developing, and utilizing new materials. There is a material that has been invented for over 4000 years and was once very precious, but now it can be seen everywhere. With the development of technology, this material has been developed with more unique properties and widely used in emerging fields. It is made of glass material. The sword of King Goujian of Yue, the treasure of Hubei Provincial Museum, has been praised as the "number one sword in the world" to assist in major scientific discoveries. The uniqueness of this sword lies not only in its sharpness even after being buried for over 2300 years, but also in the fact that the crystal clear decorations in its frame are not natural gemstones, but synthetic glass. Glass, as an amorphous material processed from natural minerals (quartz sand), has a long history. Since its invention over 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, glass has been used as a rare decorative and ceremonial material for a long time, such as the glass scarab on the pharaoh's brooch in the tomb of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in the 14th century BC. Until the 10th century AD, with the birth of transparent glass components and the continuous maturity of blowing processes, glass began to be produced on a large scale and made into containers, window decorations, mirrors, etc., widely used in daily life. The reason why glass can be stored for a long time is because it has a special amorphous structure and stable chemical properties. From a microscopic perspective, the atomic arrangement inside the glass is disorderly, just like a liquid; However, from a macro perspective, glass exhibits solid characteristics, which is called a "glassy state" and is a type of amorphous solid. Although the atoms inside the glass are irregular, if we narrow down the observation range, we will find that the arrangement of neighboring atoms has a certain pattern, which is called "short-range ordering". There is a structural unit called silicon oxygen tetrahedron inside the glass, where one silicon atom is located at the center and four oxygen atoms are connected to four vertices. This sturdy structural unit endows the glass with characteristics such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance, and high hardness. Later, humans continuously studied the characteristics of glass and innovated glass varieties, and glass has become the most common material in daily life today. In the 16th century, the functional characteristics of glass were further discovered. At the end of the 16th century, the microscope was invented, followed by the advent of telescopes. By utilizing the unique physical properties of glass, humans not only magnify visible objects to the naked eye, but also observe a world beyond the limitations of visual nature, sparking a revolution in optical technology. When time came to modern times, from Madame Curie's use of glassware to discover the elements polonium and radium, pioneering the theory of radioactivity, to Gao Kun's use of glass fibers to achieve the communication revolution, and to Alexei Yekimov's discovery of quantum dots in colored glass, glass was present in many major scientific discoveries that changed the world. It can be said that glass stimulates the potential physical properties of silicon, endowing materials with new vitality through different element combinations, and promoting human technological progress. In this regard, glass is an ordinary yet important material creation. Branch
Edit：Hou Wenzhe Responsible editor：WeiZe
Source：people.cn
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