Lightweight may be nice for the city, but not around here.
Too windy, smart cars have literally been blown off the roads into ditches before.

Pretty cool stuff, and scary at the same time. It reminds me of the Indian in the Cupboard book series with micro bullets from small animated plastic military soldiers.Great find, thanks!

It is fascinating to see this kind of thinking going on and I'm sure given the resources and knowledge, anyone of us would probably enjoy "playing", er, experimenting on this scientific hypothesis.

Point aside, it's sad to see that this type of knowledge is being entertained. Fun and all for the ones involved, but of what value is the research, to whom, and to what ends would the knowledge be applied and for what future potential purpose? (Edit, ok yes I realized space travel shielding, but I am talking about Earth applications as they would probably be used more frequently on Earth than space.)

I remember reading much speculation back in the 80s about how one day nano thread materials would be produced for the military. They were discussing how one could theoretically create a T-shirt thin material to stop bullets but the big question was how to absorb the impact of the round.

Even with the new super wonder cloth the round would still impact hard enough to break bones - ribs etc. Then in an unrelated article around the same period I read how a Japanese company had just developed this wafer thin "Super shock absorbent" rubberized material.

They showed it absorbing a dropped bowling ball on a flat piece of 1/4" glass leaving the glass in one piece. It was said to also have extreme sound deadening properties as well.

You'd think that 33+ years later somebody would have by now put two and two together already....

Just wait for the nanotech plutonium body armor aerosol I will invent :p

Nice find, S&F.
OK, let's flip the coin, shall we?
Imagine a weapon that fires nano-particles, say, ummmm....IRRADIATED particles. Poisonus, deadly, hard to detect....made of materials that are non-metal....a great assassination method. Secretly irradiating materials and making them toxic. Or a great way to sabotage equipment without actually destroying it outright. Weaken the structure and allow it to break down and fail over time, say, when you're half a world away. Or sabotage satellites and space vehicles....Planes.........OIL RIGS.
Holy $#!% I'd better stop giving DARPA and the CIA/DIA ideas !!!

Good find though, OP.

Hey, without microscopic things you wouldn't be able to survive. It would only make sense to apply this same idea to weaponry. I.e. biological warfare et. al... What I find interesting about this story is they're testing copolymer polyurethane, which is alright and all, but what ever happened to graphene? Could graphene withstand these 'bullets'? I just find it useless, graphene is where it's at, for now at least. Even biological weapons still surpass these 'inventions'. I honestly expected something better from MIT and it's cohorts.

“We want to find out why this polyurethane works the way it does. Theoretically, no one understood why this particular kind of material – which has nanoscale features of glassy and rubbery domains – would be so good at dissipating energy,” he said.

Is this a serious question?? Have these people never took a simple biology class? The simple answer is surface area plus the structures of it's chemical bonds. I thought Rice & MIT were good universities this whole time. Then again, I used to think that way about my government too!. I guess it brings funding lol...

Originally posted by Philippines
Pretty cool stuff, and scary at the same time. It reminds me of the Indian in the Cupboard book series with micro bullets from small animated plastic military soldiers.Great find, thanks!

It is fascinating to see this kind of thinking going on and I'm sure given the resources and knowledge, anyone of us would probably enjoy "playing", er, experimenting on this scientific hypothesis.

Point aside, it's sad to see that this type of knowledge is being entertained. Fun and all for the ones involved, but of what value is the research, to whom, and to what ends would the knowledge be applied and for what future potential purpose? (Edit, ok yes I realized space travel shielding, but I am talking about Earth applications as they would probably be used more frequently on Earth than space.)

edit on 16-11-2012 by Philippines because: ETA: remembered space applications as edit shows =)

It would help in car panels in an accident it can absorb large amount of impact force and stop the damage to the car and its occupants. Also airplanes, trains, trucks just general transportation. Surfboards, parachutes, hunting vests. Oh here's a good one sports and military helmets. bullet proof street signs or how about baseball bat proof mail boxes. High rise building windows.

I was wondering what the largest size bullet would be. did they stop and 9mm? did they try 50cal? using it as coatings or as whole pieces.

I can't wait to see what the many applications this product will be used for.

Originally posted by TKDRL
Lightweight may be nice for the city, but not around here.
Too windy, smart cars have literally been blown off the roads into ditches before.

are you talking So. California during santa ana winds?

The problem is you can hack a smart cars system and until they can keep that from happening I doubt smart car use will be of any use until it is as safe a possible to operate.

I'd like to point out that this thread is about a material with properties of both glass and rubber, not microbullets. (Full disclosure, I came for the microbullets.)

The microbullets are a means of testing the material, not a weapon. They are accelerated with a laser, so as a weapon system it would have the same problems associated with lugging around all the equipment needed to shoot stuff with lasers.

The material, though, looks like it might be even more useful than the transparent aluminum in Star Trek IV.

If anyone has read Liberty's Crusade - Jeff Grubb, there was a material they used called "Plasteel" as there 'glass'. This is a good thing.

Plasteel is a clear substance of terran design, akin to glass.[1] However, the "steel" suffix suggests that it is rather durable as well, especially in the context of neo and paristeel. It is known to be used on capital ships in the quarters of high ranking officers such as generals and admirals, allowing them a view into space. This is in contrast to other individuals, who are afforded no such luxury.[1] However, it appears that the glass windows of robo-harvester cabins are made of plasteel.[2]