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Scientists have come [down / up] with a revolutionary new use for wood. They have [devised / revised] a way to make it transparent. This could [total / totally] change the way many things in our lives are used and made. See-through wood could [one / only] day replace glass and be used in windows and tables, for iPhone screens, and in a whole [assorted / assortment] of other building materials. The [innovation / innovative] has come from researchers at the University of Maryland in the USA. They experimented with different ways to [extant / extract] the chemicals from wood that give it colour. Researcher Liangbing Hu said: "We were very [surprising / surprised] by how transparent it could go. This can [really / real] open applications that can potentially replace glass and some [optical / optician] materials."

The researchers worked with a small block of linden wood. They boiled it [in / by] water, sodium hydroxide and other [chemical / chemicals] for about two hours. A molecule called lignin, which [gives / giving] wood its colour, disappeared during the boiling [pretext / process] . This left behind colourless cells, which effectively made the wood [transparency / transparent] . The see-through wood is a lot [stronger / strength] and less dangerous than glass. It is better at [insulating / insulated] against the cold and it is biodegradable. Research is still in its [infancy / fancy] and the process can currently only be done on 10cm by 10cm blocks of wood that [large / range] in thickness between paper-thin and a centimeter thick. The researchers will now focus [on / at] applying the process on a much larger scale.