via Boing Boing from UCIrvine Today
Here's the gun obsession test. While reading about that miraculous material, did you or did you not think of the implications for the gun industry? When you read "complete recovery from compression," did you or did you not think about triggers or bullets?The new material redefines the limits of lightweight materials because of its unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The researchers were able to make a material that consists of 99.99 percent air by designing the 0.01 percent solid at the nanometer, micron and millimeter scales. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler of HRL.
The material’s architecture allows unprecedented mechanical behavior for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50 percent strain and extraordinarily high energy absorption.
Please leave a comment.
I wonder if it would make a good skin for an aircraft. It may not be stiff enough to maintain its shape under pressure, though. Perhaps it will be the real stretchable trash bag--remember those commercials in which the movers drop a piano off the top floor into Company X's product and it gets caught safely?
ReplyDeleteSince you raise the subject, it does look like a good material for ballistic vests. (And for shark suits.) Imagine a soldier covered in that material.
Notice how no one else has yet taken your bait? Or perhaps you've rejected other comments. Mine, you ought to observe, made no reference to firearms, other than to suggest that the material in question could be used to prevent gunshot injuries and deaths.
ReplyDeleteBut that counts, Greg. You passed the test, which is another thing we have in common.
ReplyDeleteI do see a future for this material in shark suits. It all depends on how much force it can absorb. The stuff might also make good artifical blood vessels or heart valves. And if light beams can be sent through the spaces, it could be a good camouflage material.
ReplyDelete