Joined by Ridham Raval, an undergraduate student at the university, Baruah transformed pieces of balsa wood into natural, semi-transparent woods by pulling out the lignin and hemicellulose using a ...

To make it transparent, the lignin and hemicellulose are removed, leaving behind a porous, paper-like network of cellulose. Then, a colorless material fills in those pores, also restoring some ...