"What Could We Build With Extra-Strong, See-Through Wood?"

          A team of scientists in Sweden "came up with a hybrid of wood and acrylic that retains some of the advantages of each material". It is supposed to be stronger than acrylic and and lighter than normal wood. "Previous research in this vein has yielded fold[-]able transparent paper, and in 2012, a member of the transparent-wood team, Lars Berglund, was part of a group that managed to create a transparent crab shell. They did it by extracting calcium carbonate, protein, lipids and pigments, replacing them with an acrylic resin while preserving the shell’s shape". I think that this is a really cool invention that has been made.

          Scientists think that it will be used in construction so that there can be more natural light into buildings, instead of whereas windows are completely transparent. The transparent wood isn’t as clear as glass, so that it can be used to trap light longer in a solar cell. 

 http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-could-we-build-with-extra-strong-see-through-wood-1461254815