[Baron Munchausen]

Actually, this is not 'transparent aluminum'. It's aluminum oxide, i.e. corundum (called 'sapphire' when it's tinted blue and 'ruby' when it's tinted red), a crystal like quartz. No suprise that it's transparent. This is just a breakthrough in bulk manufacturing so it can be used for large scale applications other than tiny peep holes on pressure chambers & such.