Researchers from the United States and Switzerland have jointly developed a method of compacting metals. The emission of pressure waves caused by a high energy laser against metal has allowed to compress the metal by approximately 20%. On a microscopic scale, metals are not continuous or rigid, but tiny crystal mosaics. Pressure waves create cracks in the lens and the material is compact. The consequence is an ultra-fast metal. At the moment, this technique has been applied in very small amounts of metals.