(Andrew Gabriel) writes:

In article ,
Dave writes:
I have just watched a prog on digital tv (Ideal world) and they were
demonstrating a drill set that can drill through wood, plaster, brick,
concrete, tiles, mild steel, cast iron and bricks. See www.idealworld.tv

They were saying that they were a tipped drill and the tip was
cryogenically frozen cobalt.

What does cryogenically frozen mean when it freezes at 1495°C?
Dunked in water, perhaps?

If you solidify metal quickly enough you can get metallic glass.
(My metallurgy supervisor was working on this thirty years ago
by dipping a thermally massive rotating wheel into molten metal,
resulting in a ribbon of metallic glass whizzing off. I've no
idea of the current state of the art.) Dropping hot cobalt into
liquid nitrogen might do it, but whether cobalt glass is any use
for anything, I can't say.

--
Jón Fairbairn
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2009-01-31)