Scientist Invent Lightest Material on Earth. What Now?

Scientists have invented a new material that is so lightweight it can sit atop a fluffy dandelion without crushing the little fuzzy seeds.

It's so lightweight, styrofoam is 100 times heavier.

It is so lightweight, in fact, that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue of Science that it is the lightest material on Earth, and no one has asked them to run a correction yet.

That's light!

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Pretty cool! Wonder what the possible applications for this will be?

Link to rest of story

this remins me of the aerogel substance that was created a few years ago.

Are they any expected uses for this material yet?

cardboard box replacement perhaps?

UBER zepplin of doom?

It's the lightest "structure" on earth. Since it's mostly made up of nickel, it's hardly the lightest "material."

That being said, I didn't see anything in the article discussing the strength of this stuff. If it's durable, the applications are nearly limitless, if it's only good for blocking air or what have you, then it's applications are reduced to fabrics and/or insulation. Good for air or spacecraft interiors I suppose.

Either way, good find.


~FugitiveSoul

Sorry, but you missed out by about 8hrs...

Previous thread

Funnily enough, there's another one of these threads that turned up an hour or two after this one....


Kyle

Topic already being discussed here.

Thread closed.