I don't think they used transparent aluminum in Star Trek IV.
I thought they paid for whatever they used (plexiglass?) with the recipe for transparent aluminum.
Although it could just be that I'm forgiving the poor writing.
I thought they paid for whatever they used (plexiglass?) with the recipe for transparent aluminum.
Although it could just be that I'm forgiving the poor writing.
(The answer of course is they're building an aquarium tank, and aquarium tanks are see through or have windows into it so humans can spectate. If they wanted to just bring whales back, they probably would have just flooded some crew room.)
It seems logical to me - it just had nothing directly to do with their whale-transporting plans.
And if humans were in fact the source of Starfleet's knowledge of transparent aluminum then it'd be an instance of a causal loop, of which there are many examples in fiction.
Hell, there's several examples just in Star Trek.