Iron Man-inspired material made from DNA and glass is 5x stronger than steel — and 4x lighter
Regular glass is brittle and fragile. But pure glass coated on DNA is a different beast entirely.
byTibi Puiu
August 11, 2026
in Materials, News
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Edited and reviewed by Mihai Andrei
A silhouette of a superhero in high-tech armor, standing against a sunset backdrop. Credit: AI-generated, DALL-E 3.
Regular glass is brittle and fragile. But pure glass built into structures using DNA is a different beast entirely.
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Scientists have successfully combined the intricate structure of DNA with the purity of glass to create a material that boasts both lightness and unprecedented strength. The resulting supermaterial is five times lighter yet four times stronger than steel. This makes it “the strongest known” for its given density, according to the scientists who forged the material from the University of Connecticut, Columbia University, and Brookhaven National Lab.
