Gone are the days when glass was fragile. Gone is the age when glass was used only to contain. Today — in the Glass Age— glass is versatile, flexible, and strong. Glass moves information at the speed of light. Glass enables devices that are as sophisticated as they are beautiful. Glass transforms everyday surfaces and provides extraordinary benefits. Discover how the technical properties of glass are changing the world.

How can today’s high-tech glass – found on smartphones, elevator walls, public kiosks, and more — be so tough that it withstands all the dropping, scratching, and splattering of everyday life? Part of the answer lies in the ion-exchange process.

For centuries, glass has been an indispensable laboratory partner for chemists and research scientists. So important were glass vessels in lab experiments that in the years before mass production, chemists frequently did double-duty as glassblowers, creating their own labware for measuring, mixing, and storing chemicals.