One of the ways that Chapman added lightness to his cars, the use of composite materials such as carbon fibre and glass-reinforced plastic, is not that practical either.

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This will unlock an opportunity to manufacture glass using the plastic techniques while retaining the transparency, encapsulation, and high-temperature tolerance of glass.

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The company also said it has upgraded the iPhone's screen from plastic to optical-quality glass, which should quiet some concerns about scratching and durability.

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The microcapsules can be suspended in a carrier medium, so that they can be screen-printed on to surfaces including glass, plastic, fabric and even paper.

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Many are pretty tacky: full of plastic flowers, fake stained-glass windows and doll's-house pews.

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Mr Wilson will check what residents in Mansfield are putting in their green wheelie bins and in blue recycling bins - which are for plastic bottles, glass, cardboard and cans.

BBC: NEWS | UK | England | Nottinghamshire | Man's job to look in rubbish bins

Holding it in your hand, you can tell the Samsung phone's plastic parts are a bit cheaper than Apple's luxury glass-and-metal components.

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By replacing the glass sheets with plastic, Rolltronics plans to manufacture a flexible version of this memory using a roll-to-roll process.

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We're also worried that a slate PC designed like this won't have a way of protecting the screen from the sharp poky objects that sometimes accidentally make their way into our bag -- we'd feel much more secure with some sort of scratchproof glass up front instead of this soft plastic finish.

ENGADGET: Stantum multitouch Slate PC prototype hands-on Hands-on