A number of years ago a film episode from the "Star Trek" series captured the imagination of many as the crew's chief engineer showed earthlings how to manufacture a product referred to as "transparent aluminum," required to fabricate an unusually large aquarium on their spaceship. While the concept of transparent aluminum might seem alien to most, similar products have been developed at Penn State University's Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) as part of a larger study that uses microwave processing (MWP) to make composite materials. It was discovered that MWP allows the manufacture of a number of composites including aluminum oxide with a magnesium oxide impurity, forming a transparent, synthetic gem-like material, as shown in Figure 1. Other gem materials (e.g. rubies, etc., Figure 2) can also be manufactured rather quickly by MWP. Furthermore, these composite materials are multi-crystalline, not a single crystal, which results in a less brittle, more durable behavior.