Wood is a material that humans have been using for millions of years, for the construction of ships, housing and as a source of fuel for burning. It’s also a renewable source, and one way to capture excess carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. Today, the main component of wood, cellulose, is produced annually at 20 times the volume of steel.

One thing we can all agree on is that you wouldn’t use wood to make windows…right? Instead, we rely on glass and plastic, which are transparent. However, buildings lose a lot of heat through glass windows as it’s not a good insulator, this is why we have ‘double glazing’. On the other hand, wood is a great insulator but we still face the problem that isn’t transparent.

However, in recent years, scientists have been experimenting with wood to make it transparent whilst maintaining its mechanical properties. This would usually take a high amount of energy and some pretty dodgy chemicals to bring to fruition but new studies show there may be a better more sustainable way. More work needs to be done to optimise this process but one day, in the future, you might be sitting in a building with wooden windows.