World's lightest solid, lighter than air, hard like glass.

Oh my god, when you guys see this your heads are going to EXPLODE!

This material is 4 times lighter than air, and quoted from the website I'll give you in just a second...

This is the most amazing thing I've ever come across.

It is the worlds lightest, strongest and ONLY clear building material.

here's the site...amazing!!!!

science.nasa.gov...

Let me state that I'm not sure of its ACTUAL hardness, they keep likining it to glass, although I'm betting it's something more around soft wood that has a tensil strength of steel? Anyways...AMAZING!!!

Sincerely,
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(g) Other way around, FM. It weighs 3-4 times as much as air.

(otherwise, they'd have the dickens of a time hanging onto the stuff!)

Aww damn, I misread the zeros...simple mistake...still most awesome stuff in the world....

science.nasa.gov...

ugh...stupid zeros I see about 4 past the decimal point and it all looks the same

Sincerely,
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Yes, I think you need to start paying attention to that FM, it could cost you dearly, on, ohhh, lets say, TAXES!!

Byrd.

You should have been a maths teacher.


Oh yeh.

Thats right , you were.

Nasa Aerogel
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Discovered in the 1930s by a Stanford University researcher, it's the lightest solid known, nicknamed "frozen smoke". A block the size of a human weighs less than a pound, but is able to support the weight of a subcompact car or about half a ton.

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It's only 3 times denser then air but
an inch-thick slab can safely shield the
human hand from the heat of a blowtorch.
A sugar-cube size portion of the gel has the
internal surface area of a basketball court.

WonderWomans Invisible Jet can now be made real!!!
Bet this stuff would make good UFO material too. Made in the 1930's would allow for things like Foo Fighters and Orbs and all kinds of cool stuff don't ya think??

Wow, this is for real? They could really do a lot of good with this. I doubt they will use it for any good though. Whoever THEY are

Amazing, and we wonder if the US has any secret weapons or craft, if they have this sort of stuff hidden away.....

Ok, I just don't understand! This stuff was made or found in the 1930's and we havent found a use for it yet?? Seems like something that has been around 70 some years would be common stuff.

They could build aircraft out of it. That would look sick. You look up in the sky after you hear a jet engine and all you see are people lined up in rows flying 800km/h across the sky. Talk about a trip.

This thread inspired me to look up scientific advances from NASA and got a bunch of myths' debunked stuff about Tang, Tinfoil and Velcro...

I thought for sure Velcro was space inspired...

George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, had the idea of mimicking the burr's method of attaching itself to create a new type of fastener. In 1951 he applied for a patent for the invention, and a year later formed a company, Velcro S.A., to manufacture and sell it. (The "vel" comes from velvet or velour and the "cro" from "crochet," which is French for "hook.")

Hmmm...

I wonder how well it holds up on impact.

Yes, I have heard of this! I don't remember it being as hard as glass but I do know this is being used to collect organic matter from the tail of a comet.

Excerpt:

"One year after its launch, NASA's Stardust spacecraft has begun the first part of its mission to collect cometary and interstellar dust particles. Stardust successfully deployed its aerogel collector on February 22 and will begin gathering samples from an interstellar dust stream that our solar system is currently moving through. "

66.102.7.104...:UBS_NttS2BgJ:www.starclass.com.au/news/news30.html+aerogel+collecting+organic+matter+from+the+tail+of+a+comet&hl=en &ie=UTF-8

Netchicken: Well this stuff wasn't exactly hidden away...

I thought i remember reading somewhere that this stuff was the same foam that damaged the shuttle columbia. I can't remeber where i read that though and if that's true.

foam didnt damage the shuttle, the damage happened quite nearly 11 minutes after launch.

ontopic: maybe they dont use it because perhaps this stuff is LUDICROUSLY expensive to produce? i dont know personally...

Have u got any links of how it is made...? Perhaps it can be made at home

Wud be fun to mess around with , test its limits and all

Im also quite suprised it isnt in full use as a commecial product being discovered in the 1930's

[Edited on 18-12-2003 by CoBoLT]

The reason Aerogel has never been used for anything is that it shatters very easily. It's almost impossible to tool it. So, it's only used in blocks, which limits what you can do with it.

I'd love to hold some, though it looks ghostly.