The Blackest Material

QuantumCrypto writes "Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created 'the world's first material that reflects virtually no light.' This anti-reflection technology is based on nanomaterial and could lead to the development of more efficient solar cells, brighter LEDs, and 'smarter' light sources. In theory, if a room were to be coated with this material, switching on the lights would only illuminate the items in the room and not the walls, giving a sense of floating free in infinite space."

Comments

tsk

[scapermoya]

dupe.

Re:tsk

[numbski]

Dupe, and posting buttons appear busted?

Re:tsk

[Ekhymosis]

As per your signature, if the walls in the dungeon were coated with this stuff, a grue would most definately have its way with you =)

Re:tsk

[Anonymous Coward]

Link to earlier article: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/0 2/2113206

Re:tsk

[utopianfiat]

AHHH yah beat meh

Re:tsk

[ghoti]

What is actually interesting though is that even the combined wisdom of all the Firehose users has not been able to spot the dupe (and a bunch of others). You can still blame the editors for posting the dupe, but this collaborative filtering should really go much further.

Re:tsk

[HTH NE1]

As a Firehose user, I must say that it gets difficult to keep track of which dupe stories made it to the front page and which are just dupe submissions that have not yet made it to the front page. Despite the distinctive color, the mass of submissions become a blur.

Re:tsk

[Anonymous Coward]

Collaborative filtering is the opiate of the masses. They're now a little too high to care.

Re:tsk

[maxume]

I don't look at it because it hasn't been that interesting when I have. The small amount of wisdom contributed probably isn't enough.

Re:tsk

[vimh42]

but a dupe gives me a chance to relay something I forgot the first time I saw the story.

My mother in law once saw a black shirt that said (in a dark brown font) "I'm just wearing this color until they find something darker."

I guess I've found a new material to make a t-shirt out of.

Re:tsk

[syrion]

I apparently submitted my askslashdot question at a bad time of day; it was barely voted on (and voted up), but not enough to get to the front page. What's the etiquette? Can I try again? Do I just pimp it out and say "HAY GUYZ GO VOTE FOR TeamSpeak, Ventrilo - Are there Free alternatives?"

Re:tsk

[Wazukkithemaster]

Agreed.

Re:tsk

[KillerCow]

My mother in law once saw a black shirt that said (in a dark brown font) "I'm just wearing this color until they find something darker."

here

Re:tsk

[flanktwo]

They must have painted the original with this material and can't see it anymore.

Re:tsk

[Anonymous Coward]

As a Firehose user, I must say that it gets difficult to keep track of which dupe stories made it to the front page and which are just dupe submissions that have not yet made it to the front page. Despite the distinctive color, the mass of submissions become a blur.

In other words, it's really difficult to keep the dupes from happening. Kinda sucks the fun out of pretending I'm smarter than the Slashdot editors.

Re:tsk

[ArAgost]

Nothing reflecting light to see here. Please move along.

Re:tsk

[Anonymous Coward]

a grue would most definately have its way with you

You definitely made a spelling error in your sentence.

Looks like a fish,

[Clever7Devil]

Moves like a fish, steers like a cow.

Re:Looks like a fish,

[HTH NE1]

Looks like a fish, Moves like a fish, steers like a cow.

I think you got the wrong ship. I believe that one had an infra-pink lizard emblem on the neutrino housing.

Re:Looks like a fish,

[Clever7Devil]

Very possible. The HHGTTG part of my brain is all jubbly. All the voices in the book are the BBC radio broadcast in my head. Makes it very hard to remember what happens in which incarnation.

To get this out of the way...

[EvanED]

I guess we know what material Hotblack Desiato used to make his stunt ship...

Re:To get this out of the way...

[EvanED]

Crap, I was late. Mod me redundant if you'd like.

Re:To get this out of the way...

[Clever7Devil]

You're my internet hero today.

Re:To get this out of the way...

[HTH NE1]

I guess we know what material Hotblack Desiato used to make his stunt ship...

Or the Hagunenons' horribly beweaponed chamelioid death flotilla.

Or Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1 (TMA-1 a.k.a. The Monolith).

Re:To get this out of the way...

[EvanED]

You beat me to the punch though...

Re:To get this out of the way...

[HTH NE1]

Except he got the wrong ship. The line was about a ship similar to another they'd looked at that crashed into the third moon of Jaglan Beta. The Hotblack Desiato (or Hagunemnon ship in the radio show) didn't look like a fish at all. It was so black you could hardly make out its shape.

(Yeah, and a few minutes ago I misspelled "Hagunemnon". Though, frankly, I'm not sure what the right spelling is; I don't have the radio scripts.)

Re:To get this out of the way...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent even higher.

Outside

[Rie Beam]

"In theory, if a room were to be coated with this material, switching on the lights would only illuminate the items in the room and not the walls, giving a sense of floating free in infinite space."

Outside of that gravity thing. Sounds more like standing outside in the country.

Re:Outside

[twostar]

To those of us stuck in the cubefarms of the city it's the same thing.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

You've never actually stood outside in the dark in the country.

Re:Outside

[Darth Muffin]

... or you could just close your eyes and get the same effect. Much cheaper too :)

All of my kid's Goth friends are probably rejoycing and wondering when they can get a t-shirt or trechcoat made of this stuff.

Re:Outside

[lawpoop]

Yeah, but when you are outside, don't you see the ground that things are resting on? I'm guessing that when they said "if a room were to be coated with this material, switching on the lights would only illuminate the items in the room and not the walls" they meant the floor too. But also, the items would appear to cohere in space as if they were on a floor. Which they are.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt that even this material is dark enough for most Goths!

Re:Outside

[alienmole]

...while high enough to feel as though you're floating.

Re:Outside

[DJ Nanashi]

No no, it's Emo now, not goth.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

no, as a highschool student we have both goth and emo. The difference is goths are just like the same, goths havent changed, emo's on the other hand, are all about being pansy ass little pussies about everything and trying as hard as possible to look and act like emaciated little girls. Also the music is completely different, you cant even compair The Cruxshadows(really good band) to emo shit like falloutboy, panic at the disco, and the other "i hate my life and no one loves me bands"

Re:Outside

[master0ne]

i cought my self thinking this would make for one hell of a mushroom trip if you painted the walls with this stuff, but left doors and windows (and frames) regular color, and then painted some black light ink on the walls in the form of some alice in wonderland charaters.....

Re:Outside

[Joebert]

What happened to the good old days when it was "pussy" & everyone knew what you meant ?

Re:Outside

[Merusdraconis]

I've got this sudden idea for a room painted in this stuff with a step.

Re:Outside

[Walt Dismal]

I expect a very practical use for this material, if it is not too expensive, will be as a wall coating to replace green screens in filmmaking. It would allow lighting the subjects without worry about any light spill onto the background, and maybe allow better keying for special effects. You would just replace all pixel values that equal zero with your own background data, instead of keying on that narrow-band green which is, after all, still green.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't compare them because I can't stand to listen to any of them long enough to tell the difference. It reminds me of when my techno listening friends would get upset that I couldn't tell drum and bass from jungle.

It's all the same crap from where I'm listening.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually not like outside in the country.

The audio equivalent is called an anechoic chamber, and when you walk into one it feels really weird. Your brain depends on early and diffuse reflections to give you a sense of space. Even outside, the ground and trees and even air can reflect and refract a certain amount of data back to you.

Having the reflections removed is a pretty eerie experience which is difficult to describe.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

can we all just agree on "prissy faggot" already?

Re:Outside

[admactanium]

I expect a very practical use for this material, if it is not too expensive, will be as a wall coating to replace green screens in filmmaking. It would allow lighting the subjects without worry about any light spill onto the background, and maybe allow better keying for special effects. You would just replace all pixel values that equal zero with your own background data, instead of keying on that narrow-band green which is, after all, still green.

except that would be color keying much harder because black naturally exists on objects like people and clothes. the reason things are shot again chroma green and blue is because they're not as commonly occurring in the objects that they're trying to photograph and extract. the reason the green and blue are a very specific color is to make keying easier by isolating that color in one channel of rgb. that way it's much easier to determine the differential information. keying against black is practically useless unfortunately. you'd have to go in and rotoscope everything that is black (like hair or eyeglass frames or belt, etc) or a value of black back in to the image. plus, on set they don't worry about light spilling onto the screen because they're usually much more brightly lit than the subject to keep a consistent tone throughout. presumeably, the reason they use blue and green is to allow for photography of subjects that are in the other color range (ie, guy with green shirt on bluescreen, guy with blueshirt on greenscreen). nobody keys against chroma red because obviously everyone's skin would cause them to be semi-transparent.

if you're talking about the key color spilling into the subject (like in between hair and such) than that's a different issue. that's why when you do a telecine, you'll do what's called a "suppress pass" which desaturated all of the key's color. that way you can comp the original footage minus the key color back into the comp to kill the color spill without having to hand-draw it into each frame.

i'm sure it could be used for some pretty interesting techniques in photography and film but color keying isn't likely to be one of them.

Re:Outside

[rhyno46]

Also, on that type of surface I'm guessing dust is _very_ noticeable.

Re:Outside

[Walt Dismal]

I agree mostly, but note I did say pixels of zero. I meant by that absolute pure black, complete absence of reflectance. In a normally-lit scene I would expect no things would be completely down on the 'floor' i.e. r=0 b= g=0 and so pure black could be keyable. True pure black would not exist on people or objects but would with this background material, allowing a new approach in lighting. One of the problems I find with dynamic range in movie images is that the shadows/black usually block up, but in nature, we tend to see a little detail in black. With this new material, one could therefore could light everything so shadows would not block completely to black, and I would think it would allow better dynamic range compositionally. Other than that, I understand what you said and agree.

Re:Outside

[admactanium]

it's an interesting point. i would think that there are objects that go completely black on a subject especially now that so much work is being done on video rather than on film. an issue might be that there is no room for error. pulling mattes now will leave some fuzzy space that gets blasted over with the suppress pass. i still think there would be areas that are unresolvable and that the black key would be harder to pull against something like black fluffy hair (not that they're perfect on green or blue either). still, the material would be great to coat the insides of cameras and also to make shrouds for shooting large reflective objects so as not to be seen.

Re:Outside

[Walt Dismal]

Coat the inside of cameras (and lens barrels), yes, great application!

Sine I posted, I realized there are some flaws in my model of the luminance dynamics and in the post-processing, so I have to go rethink that all. My film work was decades ago and mostly industrial anyway.

I wonder if the military already has some form of this material, by the way. Er, probably captured from a crashed saucer, of course. (cough)

Re:Outside

[StikyPad]

switching on the lights would only illuminate the items in the room and not the walls

... or you could just close your eyes and get the same effect.

Sure, for extremely liberal definitions of close, eyes, and/or effect.

Re:Outside

[Patentmat]

Outside of that gravity thing. Sounds more like standing outside in the country.

Nope, they still appear to float. The room is coated with the stuff so in theory the ground is so dark it remains unseen, hence items appear to "float" in space.

Re:Outside

[letxa2000]

In a normally-lit scene I would expect no things would be completely down on the 'floor' i.e. r=0 b= g=0 and so pure black could be keyable. True pure black would not exist on people or objects but would with this background material, allowing a new approach in lighting.

But then how could you see the black holes?

Re:Outside

[Prune]

Mod parent up! Grandparent is an idiot.

Re:Outside

[Prune]

First of all, how can you see objects in the room lit, as the summary states, if you close your eyes? Second, eyelids only block about 2/3 of light. Finally, the fucking aricle says the material doesn't reflect light, but it never claims it absorbs it; actually it transmits all the light--it's a material more clear than glass. Leave it to Slashdot moderators to mod up a post that's wrong in so many ways...

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

Gone. Just like the dodo.

There's little stigma these days about being a pussy. With the advent of the information age, being a pussy is an advantage. Hell, even the blue-collar world is going soft.

These emo and goth people are certainly going to be ahead of the game when they graduate from high school/college and enter the pussy, err, corporate world.

Re:Outside

[Anonymous Coward]

so like emo kids right??

Re:Outside

[ibennetch]

Like others have said, I don't know how well this would work; I think chromakey techniques (green or blue screens) are better (but because chroma keys are cleaner than luma keys, not because of the black problem); but your theory could work just fine under the right circumstances. I work in TV and have done keys just as you describe (though graphic keys, not people, but the concept is the same). With analog (composite) video, the blackest part of the picture should be 7.5% (IRE) -- not 0; because of some boring complicated details related to using a 60-ish year old standard. If you use, say, 0 or 3 IRE as the part to be keyed out and leave the true black of the image at 7.5 IRE, you could easily set your switcher to key properly with the proper black levels. What you describe is called a Luma Key. Now a lot of production is done digitally (SDI), where the blacks are at 0%, so that makes it more complicated, but it might still work, though I haven't tried it.

It would allow lighting the subjects without worry about any light spill onto the background

A very interesting idea. There are plenty of times one wants exactly this effect and having walls like you describe might make it easier.

Re:Outside

[ibennetch]

presumeably, the reason they use blue and green is to allow for photography of subjects that are in the other color range (ie, guy with green shirt on bluescreen, guy with blueshirt on greenscreen). nobody keys against chroma red because obviously everyone's skin would cause them to be semi-transparent.

I doubt it -- the keyer only looks for the specific hue and chroma values you've selected; otherwise everything would be somewhat transparent even with green screens. That's why the green screen is so green, because they maximize the chroma in the key so the light greenish tint in your sweater won't key out. To put it in computer terms, since this is slashdot after all, it only keys out RGB values 0,255,0, so something of 0,200,0 is unaffected (this is just an analogy, the color space is different and 0,255,0 isn't even a legal value for video). I suspect the reason red isn't used is because analog video handles red very poorly and the key wouldn't be clean.

Re:Outside

[bill_mcgonigle]

What happened to the good old days when it was "pussy" & everyone knew what you meant ?

In school we used that term for ... something else.

Re:Outside

[admactanium]

well, they could pump up the contrast of their key to eliminate the very low green value in the subject whereas it would probably introduct edge artifacts if they were do pump the contrast of a red key enough to automatically key out skin and any value of red in clothes (which is very common). plus, don't most rgb devices (perhaps even the telecines) have less red photosensors than green and blue? i know bayer sensors on digital cameras are biased in some particular directions.

Re:Outside

[kchrist]

Pussy? Back in my day we'd kick your ass without even smearing our eyeliner!

Re:Outside

[BluedemonX]

That's because Drum and Bass IS Jungle. They renamed it cause they thought the term "Jungle" was racist, innit?

Re:Outside

[Dan Hayes]

That's because Drum and Bass IS Jungle. They renamed it cause they thought the term "Jungle" was racist, innit?
The obvious logical fallacy with that being that both drum and bass and jungle are still being produced, by different artists, on different labels, and played at different nights :) There's a fairly distinct difference.

#GGGGGG

[Anonymous Coward]

So, THAT black?

Re:#GGGGGG

[hc5duke]

um... if anything that would be whiter than #FFFFFF. maybe you meant #-1-1-1-1-1-1

Re:#GGGGGG

[ghoti]

Which, in unsigned 4-bit int, would of course be #FFFFFF ...

Re:#GGGGGG

[ghoti]

Gnaaaa, you're confusing me! I meant of course 8-bit, not 4-bit, since colors have three 8-bit components, not six 4-bit ones. Rest of the comment still holds, though, and proves that black equals white, for really dark shades of black.

Re:#GGGGGG

[dr_dank]

It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.

Re:#GGGGGG

[Captain Splendid]

Thank you. I checked in on this thread solely to make sure the appropriate Tap reference was in place. Carry on.

Re:#GGGGGG

[MishgoDog]

Wow... Douglas Adams was right!
I'd be careful next time you want to cross the road!

Man then went on to prove that black was white and got killed in the next zebra crossing.

Re:#GGGGGG

[skoaldipper]

Well, you know what they say...

Once you go #GGGG, you never go ^H^H^H^H.

Re:#GGGGGG

[Evanisincontrol]

That one is so nerdy and funny that it hurts. It hurts so good.

Re:#GGGGGG

[goombah99]

That's beautiful. #GGGG power.

Re:#GGGGGG

[complete loony]

So it's black in the same way "Old Tom" is noisy?

Re:#GGGGGG

[McWilde]

Well, I think we're stuck with a very stupid and dismal looking album.

Re:#GGGGGG

[NickeZ]

how is that funny? #GGGGGG is whiter than white.. blacker would have to be #-1-1-1-1-1-1 or something.. since #000000 is black..

Something Darker

[thomas.galvin]

Finally, the prophecy can be fulfilled.

razer blades

[Anonymous Coward]

I read a cheap way to get really black is to stack very thin razor blades. . . if say, you needed a small area that light has a very difficult time escaping from. Tho, I also understand it can easily be ruined if you touch the blade edges at all.

Re:razer blades

[jimmydevice]

it's a good backstop for fairly high powered lasers, but I don't think it's black.

how much more black could this be?

[chameleon_skin]

The answer is none.

None more black.

Re:how much more black could this be?

[linzeal]

Maybe Shaft?

Re:how much more black could this be?

[Dr. Spork]

Apparently they only thought it couldn't get more black. Now it seems somebody has learned how to turn the black up to 11. I smell a new album... (and the glove).

Re:how much more black could this be?

[hadhad69]

It's like a black mirror

Re:how much more black could this be?

[darkonc]

What about Microsoft's collective heart?

/me ducks

So its...

[stigmato]

So its made of Samuel L. Jackson's skin? Its nice to see celebrities getting involved in science.

Re:So its...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well it sure ain't Barack Obama!

Dolomite

[Irongeek_ADC]

You mean it's not Dolomite?

Re:Dolomite

[analogheretic]

I think you mean Dolemite, not dolomite.

Re:Dolomite

[re6smith]

It's the hip black material that won't cop out when there's light all about.

Re:Dolomite

[Irongeek_ADC]

You are correct sir. My bad.

Possible uses for the military?

[purpledinoz]

It says that it reflects virtually no light. I wonder if that includes the frequencies that are used for radar. If it doesn't reflect any radar signals, that could radically change military aircraft. Currently, military aircraft use shape as well as radar absorbing materials to achieve their stealthy-ness. Imagine if you can coat an F-16 with this stuff, and bam, you have a pretty cheap stealth fighter.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[SirTalon42]

Just don't fly it during the day.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Carnildo]

I bet this stuff washes off in the rain, though.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Bob54321]

Well if you coated a small room with this stuff it would be good as a torture technique. You just couldn't see the walls. Think about when you get up in the middle of the night and don't turn the lights on but worse. There would be a lot of bumps and bruises...

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Dun Malg]

It says that it reflects virtually no light. I wonder if that includes the frequencies that are used for radar. If it doesn't reflect any radar signals, that could radically change military aircraft. Currently, military aircraft use shape as well as radar absorbing materials to achieve their stealthy-ness. Imagine if you can coat an F-16 with this stuff, and bam, you have a pretty cheap stealth fighter. The interesting thing about light is that it's NOT radar.
So no, no instant stealth paint. Stealth aircraft already use about the best Radar Absorbing Materials they can devise for everything from structure, to skin, to paint.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[nuzak]

A blindfold works pretty well for that too.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Anonymous Coward]

actually, military planes are not coated black - the coating is more a light grey due to the fact that even the midnight sky is not ever completely black and a completely black aircraft would stand out like a sore thumb.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[mgv]

It says that it reflects virtually no light. I wonder if that includes the frequencies that are used for radar. If it doesn't reflect any radar signals, that could radically change military aircraft. Currently, military aircraft use shape as well as radar absorbing materials to achieve their stealthy-ness. Imagine if you can coat an F-16 with this stuff, and bam, you have a pretty cheap stealth fighter.


To detect this on radar you use two radars in two different positions and look for discrepancies in areas that don't return a signal.

Not that hard to do if you have a network of radar towers and some computing power. Its a little harder to spot, sort of like trying to see the queue in at the toll gates that has the least cars in it, when normally your eyes tend to see where the most cars are. But actually still quite easy to spot nothingness, especially when you have it moving and are looking from a few positions simultaneously.

Michael

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Bill Dog]

The rain would, if it could only see it.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[namityadav]

"To detect this on radar you use two radars in two different positions and look for discrepancies in areas that don't return a signal."

In theory, the two radars will not return any signal (From the empty space, and from the aircraft) .. so there will be no discrepancy, right?

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[monopole]

This stuff is handy for avoiding LIDAR on glinty surfaces like windows. But the trick is making a surface which resists dirt, and water and can handle wear and tear.
Of course, it's useless for radar, but similar principles are easy at radar frequencies (pretty much subwavelength anechoic tile) but not aerodynamic.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[multipartmixed]

He just forgot to mention the part about releasing thousands and thousands of doves wearing little tin-foil hats in order to provide a return signal.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Anonymous Coward]

The interesting thing about light and radar is that both are forms of electromagnetic radiation, which means that, apart from wavelength they're essentially the same thing. So, it's not so farfetched to wonder aloud if such a coating could be modified to absorb radar.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[chgros]

The interesting thing about light is that it's NOT radar.
Maybe not, but they're both electromagnetic waves (though with a very different wavelength). So the question may be relevant.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[dctoastman]

Not really, because you could just start looking for places on the radar that aren't coming back rather than points that are returning faster than normal.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Dun Malg]

Wavelength is pretty much the determining factor in hw EM radiation interacts with matter. Visible light is 400-700 nanometers, whereas radar is in the range of 1-40 centimeters.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[r_newman]

Radar uses high-frequency radio waves, typically at microwave frequencies these days - not light - so this suggested application is invalid. There are plenty of other applications though.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Dun Malg]

The interesting thing about light is that it's NOT radar.
Maybe not, but they're both electromagnetic waves (though with a very different wavelength). So the question may be relevant. It's not particularly relevant. The wavelength difference between radar and light is in the range of 20000 to one. You need two different antennas to pick up AM and FM, and they are only different by about two orders of magnitude (100:1). Dealing with electromagnetic radiation has everything to do with wavelength. A material "tuned" to absorb the maximum about of EM radiation between 400 and 700 nanometers wavelength is utterly unsuited to the task of absorbing radar at 1-4 centimeters. I'm not trying to be a troll here. I'm pointing out the science.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[dosquatch]

My God, please mod this insightful. Snide, yes, AC, yes, but a completely valid point.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[morethanapapercert]

well, in theory any "stealth" aircraft would leave a detectable "hole" in the sky, but not in reflected, purposely broadcast emissions as you suggest. Radar sites are readily susceptible to HARM which rely on EM band emissions for at least initial targeting. I seem to recall that some country (can't be bothered to look it up)demonstrated detection of "stealth" aircraft by detecting the "hole" that the aircraft leaves in the background radiation. (CMB, cellular background noise, etc)Anything in the sky that can noticed when it occludes a star can be detected by it's occlusion of the background noise. This is obviously tricky to pull off since you need a sensitive directional antenna that can can keep up with a moving aircraft and be accurate enough to be certain that the "hole" is actually an aircraft and not normal variation in background noise or other artifact of the detection apparatus.

On a related note, as far as I know, ALL modern combat aircraft are readily detectable by the sort of Big Ear that the English, Germans and Japanese built in the early days of WWII. (Ever see that picture of Japanese soldiers parading what looked like giant trailer mounted French Horns? Think Civil War era tin ear trumpet on a massive scale) The only problem with those is that, when tracking aircraft that routinely move near or beyond the sound barrier, by the time you know for sure where he is headed, he has already wiped out your GHQ with a batch of laser guided munitions.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Dun Malg]

My God, please mod this insightful. Snide, yes, AC, yes, but a completely valid point. Valid? Sure-- about as valid as "if frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their ass a-hoppin'"

He pointed out the obvious and then did nothing with it. Hardly insightful.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Dun Malg]

typo above: most radar sits in the range of 1-40 centimeters

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not trying to be a troll here. I'm pointing out the science

don't think we didn't notice.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[bendodge]

So the plane would have angles large enough to see? Hmm, sounds like an F-117...

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Arceliar]

Guess again. Radar can function quite well over the microwave band of frequencies. With the current high usage of cellular phones, absorbing too much of that band (ie: as current no-longer-quite-as-stealth fighers do) causes you to appear blatantly obvious. It's like using black paint on a white wall. There's so much background microwaves these days that a proper stealth fighter needs to absorb just the right amount (or damn close) to appear as invisible as they could 10 or 15 years ago.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[Technician]

Imagine if you can coat an F-16 with this stuff, and bam, you have a pretty cheap stealth fighter.

Who cares about military. I want it for my car for laser speed traps!

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[codeButcher]

No such luck. The first few consignments all go to the black helicopter compound. Maybe if there are a few leftovers, they can try that on an F-16.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[smellsofbikes]

As a side-note (and I wish I could find a reference for this online) in WWII the American Army used primitive invisibility cloaks on their anti-submarine divebombers. The issue was: the German subs would cruise on the surface because it used less fuel, and only submerge when they were either being sneaky or bombed, so they'd be spotted and bombed. But they could dive faster than the spotting plane could get down to bomb them because they had a watchman trying to spot the spotters. (How very Neal Stephenson...) Anyway, so the Army mounted headlights, basically, along the leading edge of the divebomber's wing and cowl, and turned them on dimly, and made the dark airplane disappear against the light sky. In other words: to make the plane invisible they made it glow the same as background. So it's not necessarily absorbing the light so nothing reflects, that saves you.

Re:Possible uses for the military?

[owlstead]

Or use the method used in Kill Bill (yuck).

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

You have a reading comprehension problem.

Military use?

[Ekhymosis]

I hate to be a warmonger here, but this stuff could probably be used in military applications as well, probably for night ops and the like. A modern day ninja outfit with this stuff comes to mind, or if the stuff could be tweaked to not only absorb light, but radar as well.

If it reflects virutally nothing, I wonder how it dissipitates heat, or if heat is even a factor in this.

Re:Military use?

[Carnildo]

I hate to be a warmonger here, but this stuff could probably be used in military applications as well, probably for night ops and the like. A modern day ninja outfit with this stuff comes to mind

Contrary to popular belief, the best color for urban night camoflage is not solid black. Depending on the environment, it's either charcoal grey (for general hard-to-see-ness), or irregularly-patterned greys (to break up the outline of your body).

Re:Military use?

[Xain]

This by no means contradicts what you say but I think it's worth clarifying for readers who aren't quite grasping this. This material makes things (nearly) invisible, but that is not to say they can't be detected by the human eye. It may be a fairly effective camouflage at night but I don't think it would be particularly special. During the day (or in artificial light), it's a terrible camouflage and the infiltrator would stand out like the proverbial sore thumb because even at a goth or emo gathering, they'll be so much blacker than anything else, the guards' eyes will be drawn to them. Of course, technically, the guards won't see the infiltrator, just a human shaped patch of nothingness but still, technically getting shot to pieces isn't any better than the old fashioned getting shot to pieces.

BTW, I find your sig very offensive. Please remove the word "like", it is very misleading (although it is a lot better than my whoring abomination below, I really must change it!).

Re:Military use?

[Dun Malg]

I hate to be a warmonger here, but this stuff could probably be used in military applications as well, probably for night ops and the like. A modern day ninja outfit with this stuff comes to mind

Contrary to popular belief, the best color for urban night camoflage is not solid black. Depending on the environment, it's either charcoal grey (for general hard-to-see-ness), or irregularly-patterned greys (to break up the outline of your body).
Indeed. This is because everything occurring in nature tends to reflect some light, even in the dark, when there isn't much to reflect. Solid black doesn't reflect enough, and subsequently actually stands out like a big empty void in a gray jumble of dimness.

Re:Military use?

[Squirmy McPhee]

I hate to be a warmonger here, but this stuff could probably be used in military applications as well, probably for night ops and the like. A modern day ninja outfit with this stuff comes to mind, or if the stuff could be tweaked to not only absorb light, but radar as well.

If it reflects virutally nothing, I wonder how it dissipitates heat, or if heat is even a factor in this.

It doesn't absorb anything. It's simply several layers of silicon dioxide nanotubes whose index of refraction is controlled by their arrangement. In other words, it's a multilayer antireflection coating. It won't work with radar any more than regular old silicon dioxide or other typical antireflection coatings will.

Re:Military use?

[istartedi]

Depends on the city of course. Around here, the optimal pattern is a mix of concrete and brick spattered with rat feces and black magic marker grafiti. You'll blend right in.

Re:Military use?

[BiggerBoat]

Quite so.

I remember one summer night in Yosemite when my brother and I spent an hour lying on our backs on one of the approved boardwalks across one of the meadows taking in the impressive night sky. I was astonished at how "other than black" the peaks and everything else around us were compared to the blackness of Space above, when, without the clear night sky to compare them to, I would have sworn that I was looking at some "pure blacks" among my Earthly surroundings. I was impressed by the contrast that I would not have believed was there had I not seen it with my own eyes.

Re:Military use?

[BiggerBoat]

I apologize for this - I recalled that backwards: the contrast was between how "other than black" the night sky was (receiving "light pollution" from relatively nearby population centers) while the nearby surroundings were not receiving such light, and seemed so much "blacker."

Re:Military use?

[Anonymous Coward]

Solid black doesn't reflect enough, and subsequently actually stands out like a big empty void in a gray jumble of dimness.

Kinda like the bogus "satellite picture" of the great northeast blackout some years back. There were actually some places with light, but none showed up. It became really easy to spot when you looked at the picture with an image editor -- the entire area came up as RGB 000000.

In fact, if you looked at the color print at an angle to the light, the bogused ares was clearly complete black, much more so than any other dark area of the country.

Re:Military use?

[big mike kite]

Surely the best camoflage is whatever the people normally wear in that area, grey pinstripe in London and 1970's suits with headgear in Iraq. This is also obviously why the army shoots at everyone over there at the moment.

Re:Actually...

[NotHereOrThere]

The TFA is about a perfectly black coating that reflects nothing. This does not imply that it is transparent as you seem to be inferring.

Its the new fashion.

[GregPK]

"Back to black we say. Its the new motivation for companies everywhere give thier employees that floating in corporate nothingness feeling. "Oh wait, did't we already do that?"

Re:Its the new fashion.

[Kazuma-san]

I wear black, until I find something darker. Guess the time has finaly come.

Display screens?

[mangu]

If it doesn't reflect any light, it would be perfect for monitor screens. Of course, assuming it's transparent and it doesn't let light reflected by the substrate pass through.

Blackness

[ElephanTS]

Emo's are going to love this stuff.

THERE'S JUST NO POINT ANY MORE!

[Bertie]

What on earth are we going to do with this now that Johnny Cash is dead? Eh?

Is this a record?

[Von Rex]

You just duped a story from three days ago. Do you guys even read your own site?

Re:Is this a record?

[Bob54321]

You think three days is a record? In what way... there have been dupes on the front page at the same time. You must be talking about that three days was a long time before an article got duped.

(I was going to use the usual "you must be new here" but I looked at your number and decided it wouldn't work...)

Re:Is this a record?

[Dun Malg]

You just duped a story from three days ago. Do you guys even read your own site? Of course not. They're not actually editors. They're not even nerds. They're a bunch of dumbfuck kids left in charge of what was once an interesting message board. It's not just the Slashvertisements, astroturf articles, and just plain un-nerdy, non-mattering stuff. Have you seen the idiotic poll questions lately? How about the current poll? What kind of true nerd asks "What is your favorite test" and fails to include two of the three grand-daddy nerd tests of all? They got Turing, but that's the obvious one. They missed Kobayashi Maru and Voight-Kampff, fer bog's sake! Obviously, they're simpleminded pretenders of the most detestable sort--- the kind that pretend for money.

Doesn't matter anyway. This place has been ruined by trolls and morons already.

Re:Is this a record?

[maxume]

Things to help you relax are available in liquid, pill, written, aural, visual, surgical and human forms, among others. Maybe give one of them some serious consideration.

Re:Is this a record?

[Dun Malg]

Things to help you relax are available in liquid, pill, written, aural, visual, surgical and human forms, among others. Maybe give one of them some serious consideration. Venting my spleen on Slashdot is the second most relaxing thing I have available to me. The first is Vicodin, and they won't give me any more of that.

Re:Is this a record?

[Anonymous Coward]

> If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done ...or lacking that, a Mac User will certainly do in a pinch.

Re:Is this a record?

[Quinn_Inuit]

Eh, as long as you're having fun. Most people here are probably ignoring you anyway (no offense, just that's how it seems to go), so everyone's happy.

Re:Is this a record?

[ffflala]

The poll is to test how you would deal with the failure of the poll to include the Kobayashi-Maru test.

Re:Is this a record?

[rust627]

Amputation at the neck.
Cures everything

Re:Is this a record?

[QuantumPion]

This is unconfortable and humiliating! Now, if they could put it the form of a suppository...

Re:Is this a record?

[funkify]

This is unconfortable and humiliating! Now, if they could put it the form of a suppository...

Oh, but they did!

None more black

[spagthorpe]

"It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black." -- Nigel Tufnel

Re:None more black

[pohl]

"Well I think it looks like death." -- David St. Hubbins.

Re:None more black

[dctoastman]

"Every movie, in every cinema is about death. Death sells!" - Ian Faith

Re:Actually...

[Bill Dog]

By "reflects virtually no light", read "absorbs virtually all light". Hence the applicability, for example, in creating much more efficient solar panels.

Not to mention moving us one step closer, possibly, to having a real Holodeck!

Military Death Ray Applications?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we all remember that Military Death ray a few months back and was all the buzz? Imagine if somebody developed (by anyone with any interest in not suffering atrocious burning sensations) something for these Super Duper High Frequencies to protect crowds?

Re:Military Death Ray Applications?

[Dun Malg]

Yeah, and (like) imagine if we all had flying guitars we could ride around on, and they'd (like) play themselves, and we'd be famous rock stars too!

Seriously, man, we're you actually going anywhere with that crowd control shield thing? Andwhy here?

Again?

[pclminion]

It seems that even the blackest material in existence is no match for the reflective power of a dupe-posting Slashdot editor.

Its called

[Anonymous Coward]

Dark Matter...

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now now, he could have a science problem.

(Or more likely, a "holy crap what can I post" problem)

Doesn't work for me

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

"giving a sense of floating free in infinite space" Well I tried standing in a dark space with my eyes shut, which must be pretty much the same thing, and all that happened to me was that I felt like an idiot, especially when people saw me climbing back out of the office supply cabinet.

Re:Doesn't work for me

[Wite_Noiz]

climbing back out of the office supply cabinet. Climbing? Do you have some kind of office supply pit?

Re:Doesn't work for me

[blake3737]

YOU felt like an idiot? Imagine how I felt when I climbed out after you!!

Re:Doesn't work for me

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

You try getting in and out of the office supply cabinet without putting your feet on office supplies.

Claustrophobics rejoice

[GiovanniZero]

Assuming this isn't just vaporware...

This stuff could be really cool for use in MRIs or other tight spaces that claustrophobics normally have to go into. It would give those that are normally afraid to be in small spaces the sense that they were in a vastly infinite space. That's pretty cool IMO.

I'd also like to have my home theater coated with this stuff, think about how large your house would feel! Even with low level ceilings.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[The MAZZTer]

If we all did what you propose, pretty soon everyone would have broken noses from bumping into walls so much.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[cookieinc]

It would give those that are normally afraid to be in small spaces the sense that they were in a vastly infinite space.

I suffer agoraphobia, you insensitive clod!

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[lawpoop]

Isn't part of claustrophobia the sound clues that tell you you're in a tight space? I don't know it , so I don't know. But I heard that MRIs make a racket.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[treeves]

I doubt that would work. Being inside a small cylinder, visual cues are not the only thing giving you a sense of what you're in. Sound is also an important indicator.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[Lumpy]

I'd also like to have my home theater coated with this stuff,

oh god no, having some lighting to balance the contrast makes the screen seem brighter and more enjoyable. Most of the home theaters I design have lights that are turned on to the left and right of the screen dimly but not spilling in screen to help balance the lighting on stage front. It makes the viewing more enjoyable to everyone by not having a stark contrast from screen to room.

Granted I use high end 3 chip DLP projectors that will pretty much blind you, so in the case of using an el-cheapo projector you can get away with a pitch black home theatre, but you still would benefit from some ambient light in the room. Painting the ceiling a flat black or dark gray would be more effective in giving you the effect you probably are looking for.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[StikyPad]

Maybe, but the agoraphobics are going to be pissed.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[NeMon'ess]

Movie theaters in the Bay Area don't do what you suggest. I don't see how ambient light helps. If I'm looking at the screen, I want to be absorbed in what I'm seeing. Black surroundings helps that.

I'm guessing what you're talking about has to do with the black levels on the screen being not-black-enough to match the room? Even so, again, why don't movie theaters do it? Like I said, I get absorbed watching the screen in a theater or at home, and don't want to be distracted by the room.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[bill_mcgonigle]

I suffer agoraphobia, you insensitive clod!

The Internet is infinitely large.

Re:Claustrophobics rejoice

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure the acrophobes will love that.

Darkroom

[reub2000]

This stuff could prove invaluable in a photographic darkroom.

I need this stuff

[popo]

... to be the biggest gothtard evar!

Re:I need this stuff

[journalist rose]

lol, gothtard?... i think maybe that's a negative steriotype. ;)

Picture

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we get a picture?

Re:Picture

[benevixit]

Here's a chunk of the stuff. The picture quality isn't too good, but it gives you the idea. http://tinyurl.com/rahn6/

Re:Picture

[biocute]

I haven't clicked on the link yet, because my Slashdot instinct warns me of goatse, can a newbie confirm the link is good by posting the actual URL (instead of tinyurl)?

Re:Picture

[csmacd]

Nothing to see here, move along.

(when I clicked, link was safe, funny too.)

Re:Picture

[Anonymous Coward]

Handy tip: add preview. to the URL to see the URL before visiting.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/rahn6/

Re:Picture

[NetHead026]

Here you go (posted as is since /. will strip it out otherwise):

■ (PDF Warning)

Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

With a UID lower than 90% of current UID's, you've been here long enough to see a few (hundred) dupes. A dupe from three days ago, you should know that's nothing. It's really exiting when they dupe something that's still on the main page.

Oh, and to answer your question. No.

Automated Dup Rating Score Would Help...

[Ron Bennett]

Often dups will contain similar links, phrases, keywords, etc to the originally posted article ... it seems to me that an automated system could be developed that would assign a "dup rating" score to submitted articles to make dups easier to spot beforehand.

Ron

Re:Automated Dup Rating Score Would Help...

[Inda]

I saw taco on the TV once showing his 'admin' page. I beleive it already showed dupes at the bottom of the page... ...I guess it broke.

Re:Automated Dup Rating Score Would Help...

[Dread_ed]

How about the editors just give the dupes thier own thematic section. That way, insetad of hunting and searching for all your favorite dupes you could read them all on a single page.

Just think of it! You never have to read those boring new stories again! All of your favorite /. stuff from 1998 that you read in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004(someone definitely dropped the ball in 2003), 2004 (but they made up for it by posting it twice in 2004), 2004 (make that 3 times), 2005, 2006, and 2007!

Of course they would need a neat icon to go in the top right corner of the submission that would connote a dupe. I propose the yin/yang arrows more commonly recognized as the symbol for recycling.

PIMP MY RIDE

[Roskolnikov]

coat my car with this..... no reflection, no return, lidar that....... :)

Re:PIMP MY RIDE

[Carnildo]

coat my car with this..... no reflection, no return, lidar that....... :)

LIDAR works by bouncing the laser beam off of the highly-reflective license plate. Yes, I suppose you could paint over the plate with this stuff, but then they could just pull you over for driving with an obscured plate :-)

Re:PIMP MY RIDE

[maxume]

Please elaborate on why you think this.

Re:Actually...

[Clever7Devil]

Which I think every /. user can agree is FAR more important than more efficient solar energy.

Then again...
        Dr. Orpheus: It craves... purity... it devours... purity... it seems to be... What the hell is this thing made out of?
        Dr. Venture: Nothing.
        Dr. Orpheus: Come on...
        Dr. Venture: Alright fine, I might have used a few unorthodox parts.
        Dr. Orpheus: Just tell me one!
        Dr. Venture: An... (quietly) orphan...
        Dr. Orpheus: An what?
        Dr. Venture: An... orphan.
        Dr. Orpheus: Did you say... an orphan!?
        Dr. Venture: Yeah... a little.. orphan boy..
        Dr. Orpheus: It's powered by a forsaken child!?
        Dr. Venture: Might be... kind of... I mean, I didn't use the whole thing!

giving a sense of floating free in infinite space.

[iminplaya]

It also gives a sense of deja vu

What does it look like?

[lochnessmonster]

Can someone post a link to a picture of this stuff?

Re:What does it look like?

[imbaczek]

Nothing to see here and I mean it.

Re:What does it look like?

[Russ Steffen]

Here's a picture, in one of the very few graphic formats Slashdot will accept in a comment, XBM -

#define noname_width 16
#define noname_height 16
static char noname_bits[] = {
0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, 0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,
0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, 0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,
0x00,0x00};

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

Did someone say Holodeck? Someone has to run these things, you know...

Yeah, it looks good, but...

[fireman sam]

Does it come in red?

Can't be as black as a really black black pudding!

[SpinyNorman]

Black pudding is very black today, Mother.
Yes, it is black today, dear.
Aye, that's very black tha' tis'. Even the white bits are black!

Damn! And I thought...

[Anonymous Coward]

... this was going to be about Charlie Murphy.

P.S. I'm Rick James, b!^*#

Is it blacker than priests socks?

[Larry Lightbulb]

DOUGAL: Anyway, what else did you order?

TED: Priest socks. Really black ones.

DOUGAL: I read somewhere, I think it was in an article about priest socks that priest socks are blacker than any other type of socks.

TED: That's right Dougal. Sometimes you see lay people wear what look like black socks but if you look closely you'll see they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue.

DOUGAL: Actually that's true. I thought my uncle Tommy was wearing black socks but when I looked at them closely they were just very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY, very, very, very dark blue.

TED: Never buy black socks in a normal shop. They'll shaft you every time!

Re:Is it blacker than priests socks?

[Alterion]

they were very very very very very very VERY very dark GREEN actually.

Black Nano Paint is Grey Goo

[Jherek Carnelian]

I see a red sportscar and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
The cops, they won't know how fast my car goes
I have to turn my head because their radar blows

I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
Driving so fast and never looking back
I see people turn their heads as I make my getaway
Like a hot booth babe, I do her ever day

I look inside myself and see my heart is painted black
Damn nano-paint, the beta-test was just a hack
Maybe I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy breathing when your world is covered with nano-black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the setting sun
I still can't see anything, the world is done

I saw a red sportscar that I wanted painted black
No colors anymore, I want them back
I can't see the girls walk by, it's all just grey goo
I have to turn my head and pray this darkness goes

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black

Re:Actually...

[jdwilso2]

this is a faulty assumption ... I'll leave the "virtually" out to simplify the statements, but here you go ...

to say something "reflects no light" does not mean it "absorbs all light" ...

you are leaving out transmission of light. If a material does not reflect light, it either absorbs or transmits all the rest of the light.

which is actually what this article is talking about ... material clearer than glass but not quite as clear as air.

this was quite an errant post as it is both a dupe and factually flawed.

Not a color!

[ni1s]

Black is NOT color, damit!

Re:Not a color!

[dctoastman]

Black is the abscence of light, not color.
White is the abscence of color.

Re:Not a color!

[Scratched]

No where in the article summary does it say black is a color. It just say it's the "blackest" material.

Then again, most shades of black are colors since they're usually just a very dark shade of some other color.

Re:Not a color!

[Anonymous Coward]

Black is the abscence of light, not color.
White is the abscence of color.

No no no!!! Anyone who's been to a skin bar knows that black is not the absence of light - it's what comes out of those weird purple fluorescent tubes. As for white, it's not the absence of color - it's the absence of black.

Re:Not a color!

[MacDork]

notcolor <tag> If you disagree with color, please use !color instead. ;)

Re:Not a color!

[Tim C]

Well that really depends on whether you're talking about mixing paints/pigments or mixing light. White light is a mixture of all colours, while a black surface contains a mixture of pigments that absorb light of all colours. In that sense, both black and white are a mixture of all colours, depending on the context.

Re:Not a color!

[dctoastman]

Because anything that is white has reflected/emitted all visible spectrums. Meaning that the origin does not have those colors. So when you see white, the thing has no color.

That's why white is the absence of color, and the presence of all (visible) light.
And black is the opposite. It's a matter of knowing that light and color are two separate things.

Fuligin!

[Diomedes01]

One step closer to getting a Fuligin cloak for that Severian costume I've always wanted to wear to Halloween parties.

it's already in use

[bjdevil66]

Somebody sprayed the web server and it has disappeared. Mirror?

Combine it with

[Ruvim]

Combine it with this new nanocoating material and you'll get really cool sun glasses! ;)

Re:Combine it with

[Rick Genter]

As in....peril-sensitive? ;-)

Quick!

[ToolFiend]

Someone put this stuff on the cover of a metal album!

"Brruuuutaaaalll" (said in the voice of Nathan Explosion)

Re:Quick!

[failure-man]

So the cover y'see. It needs to be black.
Uh huh.
Yeah. Like, really black. Blacker than the blackest black. TIMES INFINITY.
Okay.
And inside of the case is the same black. Also the CD, so when you open the black case what's inside? MORE BLACKNESS!
Right.
Also, make the other side of the CD black too, so you won't even know WHICH SIDE goes down!
You can't do that. The music side has to be shiny.
Aw man. That sucks.

Re:Actually...

[Bill Dog]

In time-honored Slashdot tradition, I didn't read TFA, but took my cue from the headline, which may be faulty/misleading: "The Blackest Material". (Solid) black material does not transmit light, it absorbs it. The headline was not "The Clearest Material".

Practical jokes

[chord.wav]

Finally we'll be able to paint holes on the floor like the cartoons!

Moo

[Chacham]

If "black is beautiful", this stuff is *really* beautiful. If only i could see it, i could reflect on its meaning in my blackest hour.

Yes! I want a fuligin cloak!

[panck]

Sweet, gimme a fuligin Torturer's cloak then!

Fuligin: the color that is darker than black

a picture

[Anonymous Coward]

would have been nice

As a sysadmin...

[Mr. Roadkill]

I want to know when I can get a shirt made out of it.

It's been slashed...

[Grinin]

and dotted... any mirrors yet?

Re:It's been slashed...

[nickheart]

only jokes about "black mirrors"...

Slash bug...

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on, how hard would it be to program in slash (in the editorial interface) a warning if your blurb has the same links of any other blurb in the system? Better, if 50% of the links are the same, do not let the thing go to the page.

It's sooooo black....

[PhotoGuy]

That even a previous article about the stuff failed to be seen by /. editors.

Cloak of Invisibility

[Kuvter]

I see you in my future!

... or umm don't see you, yeah.

But I thought it was...

[smilingman]

Snoop Dogg!

Re:Actually...

[DittoBox]

HOMER: What are you inferring?
LISA: I'm not inferring anything. You infer; I imply.
HOMER: Well that's a relief.

here's a picture

[Anonymous Coward]

 

Trade name

[blowhole]

I would market this stuff under the trade name 'Dolemite'

But that's just me.

Tute Screw

[Gothmolly]

Will the Tute Screw be coated with this material, so that you REALLY don't see it coming?

It's a series of colors!

[Anonymous Coward]

Enormous amounts of pigments, enormous amounts of pigments.

This would work great for....

[Brad1138]

Wile E. Coyote painting tunnels on rocks.

it is so black that...

[3seas]

both the original article and the dupe, when I troed to go to the link I get some sort of reset and never to the page.

Fuligin

[Phoenix666]

Ever since I read Shadow of the Torturer I've wanted something that's fuligin.

The blackest black of blackness. . .

[Satanboy]

I can hear Dethkloks song about the material already . . .

http://www.adultswim.com/shows/metal/

Make Something Darker

[jinkside]

I have that shirt! I got it for my birthday last year.

The new black?

[Anonymous Coward]

So "black-hole" is the new black?

Frankly, I won't believe it until I don't see it.

Energy

[Joebert]

What does it do with all this light it absorbs ?

Re:Energy

[jd]

My guess is that by "black", they only mean for a limited range of frequencies. In the infrared, it's probably some sort of violent crimson.

Photo evidence?

[SoundGuyNoise]

How the hell do you take a picture of the stuff? Will a Polaroid result in some kind of infinite loop?

Re: dupe

[KillerCow]

dupe.

Dude, do it with a little style.

Dupe: Reflectivity Reaches a New Low

Why dupe?

[jinkside]

Why did people think this is/was a dupe? It looks genuine, even though the URL didn't work for me. http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=1956 worked for me, though, which I got from their main page.

Re:Why dupe?

[SirTalon42]

Obligatory: You must be new here.

Dupe means it was previously posted before... As in duplicate. Not as in fake.

Re: dupe

[scapermoya]

brevity is the soul of wit.

Rock and roll will change forever

[Centurix]

Back in even blacker.

Nice work.

[Kahai]

Way to make global dimming even worse guys.

Re: dupe

[Who235]

I prefer the Reader's Digest condensed version:

"Brevity is. . . wit"

How about displays?

[JonLatane]

I'm not sure how exactly it could work, but I bet this could be used in LCDs or some similar displays. One of the biggest problems with them is that the reflection of light on them (for example, your cell phone screen) makes them virtually unusable in broad daylight. If something like this material could be used in such a way that it prevented the reflection of external light but still allowed the display to pass through, we could perhaps see who's calling us in the afternoon. Not to mention the power savings of not having to have an extremely powerful backlight to overcome the noise, as most displays like this do.

Perfect for a remaster of Spinal Tap's Black Album

[keithmo]

It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.
-- Nigel Tufnel

What I want to know...

[jd]

...is when they'll make something with negative reflectivity. A perfect vaccuum doesn't reflect, so zero reflectivity isn't terribly impressive.

Re:Actually...

[ne0n]

Too late. I already patented anti-speeding-ticket technology incorporating this shit.

OMG, rest for my eyes

[e-scetic]

OMG, someone please use this on automobiles. One of my pet peeves is the glare from all the shiny cars, glass and metal everywhere.

Nothing to see here...move along.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really. Can't see anything in here, not at all...

Ninja 2.0

[blankoboy]

Ninja jammy's for the 21st century!

In another headline

[rcastro0]

"Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created 'the world's first material that reflects virtually no light.'

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created 'the world's toughest-to-keep-clean material': if you look at it and can see anything, it's dirty already.

Re:Can't be as black as a really black black puddi

[Petrushka]

... now watch as SpinyNorman runs off to check the rain gauge at the town hall. Shame we don't have a (+1, Boring) mod ...

Does this mean......

[Spookticus]

that we are closer to me getting transparent aluminum?

Paint your sportcar with it.

[andydread]

no reflection + laser speed detection equipment(laser guns) = Useless

The blackest material...

[bahgheera]

would be anything by Public Enemy.

So is this...

[kybred]

The new black?

oblig. disaster area quote

[aquabat]

The Black Ship passage from the Guide seemed appropriate, but I couldn't find a copy online. A little help please?

Re:Actually...

[arodland]

The summary of the original submission was much more on the mark. So it's not just a dupe, it's a Cheap Plastic Imitation of the Amulet of Slashdot.

So

[cadeon]

When can I get a trenchcoat made out of this stuff?

not a reflection

[Anonymous Coward]

at least we know i'ts a dupe and not a reflection.

At last...

[Anonymous Coward]

I can finally wear clothes that are darker than black!

Pics?

[no1nose]

No pics?

Radio Detection and Ranging

[dcapel]

> It says that it reflects virtually no light. I wonder if that includes the frequencies that are used for radar.

Last time I checked, radio waves aren't a frequency of light; they are actually part of the Electro-Magnetic Wave Spectrum, which happens to include light, as well as heat and cosmic rays, among others. To use a dreaded car analogy, a Ford is not a type of Chrysler.

And I'd say the chance of a given material near-completely absorbing such a large portion of the EM spectrum is very, very low.

Build a better mouse...

[Anonymous Coward]

Big deal... then all ya need to do is broadcast your radar from one point, receive it at another point and look for the big black blob on your screen. pwned

Zap Brannigan

[Tribbin]

"Let's go around that... blackish, holish thing over there."

i thought

[jaimz22]

i thought westly snipes was the blackest material known to man

Chamber of death

[Quiet_Desperation]

In theory, if a room were to be coated with this material,

Any woman you brought home would pull out her mace and back slowly out the door.

No light . . ..

[HAVOC0301]

Ok but am i the only one who thinks of Star trek and the holodeck ??????

ummm...

[Anonymous Coward]

the world's first material that reflects virtually no light.

how about soot? that's been around for millions of years...

But...

[Vampos DeCampos]

is it frictionless?

This is not a dupe!

[StarfishOne]

The day that we don't get dupes anymore at Slashdot.. now that would be a truly black day since Slashdot would have removed the policy of giving us another chance to reflect on the meaning of the article in question.

I can hear it now...

[Punch-Drunk Slob]

Also Sprach Zarathustra

And the typical american advertisement:

[had3z]

Coming soon in stores near you! With more black than ever!

and the "satisfied customers":
- I always wanted my black to be black, but my black turned to gray after some time. But now, black stays black evan after seven years.

Can you cast a shadow on it?

[Shag]

Someone gave the example of standing outside in the country. (Presumably on a moonless night, maybe with clouds to block the stars?)

On a clear starry night, I've seen my shadow from starlight alone. So I've gotta ask, does this reflect so little light that you'd be unable to distinguish a shadow from the "illuminated" area around it?

4x reflectors

[purduephotog]

At Kodak when we needed 'black' to capture no matter how much light was tossed on the film (for targets) we used a special designed prism- it consisted of 4 highly polished black angled walls and an aperture that, given any direction light would enter, would require a minimum of 4x reflections in order to exit.

Each of the walls reflected 0.1% of the light.... so the entire setup reflected 0.1^4 (%).... or about 'nothing'.

Anyway... The real reason I posted here is there's a guy on Ebay selling virtual backdrops. He bought a whole bunch from one of the photography forumns, and then photographed them in- and cells a single chroma key background, with the CD of the other background. He's making a pretty penny :)

It's not the blackest material

[Anonymous Coward]

The souls of Steve Ballmer and the other execs at Microsoft and the MAFIAA are far darker. They absorb more light than the strongest black hole.

Heat

[Anonymous Coward]

I would think that if this stuff absorbs "all light" then it would make a great conductor of heat from the sun (think car with black interior).

Might have potential in "Solar Collector" type applications

Finally

[EveryNickIsTaken]

They've discovered the badass compound that doesn't take guff from anyone: Dolemite!

Wait a minute...

[The_Moops]

What about Wesley Snipes? And before that the Murphy brothers Charlie and Eddie?

lost inside

[White Yeti]

I've heard that some people can get nauseated in an anechoic chamber (being disconnected from a normal environmental input). An anechoic chamber lined with this stuff would make a neat sideshow attraction, sort of the opposite of the house of mirrors.

What happens to the light?

[Anonymous Coward]

If the light doesn't reflect... what happens to it? The object heats up? By how much? If the coating is put on glass, does the glass become more transparent, or does the glass become black and start heating up?

Lots of missing info in TFA and it's full of speculation about uses that depend on different answers to these questions.

How much more duped could this be?

[Sloppy]

None. None more duped.

Geek humor

[Sherloqq]

"...Researchers could use an ideal black body to shed light on quantum mechanics..."

Those journalists and their tongue-in-cheek witticisms...

Light Mill

[tgraupmann]

What would happen if you used this substance in a light mill?

Re:Actually...

[snarkvark]

In either case, I'm pretty excited about the possibilities. "absorbs all light": Useful for painting fake tunnels and manholes to splat cartoon coyotes. "reflects no light": Useful for trapping mimes.

Has to be used for the power of good !!

[HAVOC0301]

Who thinks of Star trek and the holodeck. Dull black room w/ overly bright grid lines for motion capture computers so you are able to interact in a virtual world better = )

Contributes to Dark Matter research?

[Logicalmoron]

Could the study of this kind of a material help int he detection/quantized study of dark matter?

Stealth suits

[netdemonboberb]

Stealth suits using this material would be very useful. They'd give me an advantage in laser tag :-)

A key ingredient

[Wolfger]

In theory, if a room were to be coated with this material, switching on the lights would only illuminate the items in the room and not the walls

Holodeck, here I come! Now all we need is better holographic imagery. Oh, and the requisite force fields so that you can touch the holograms...

Black as midnight on a moonless night

[kchrist]

That's pret-ty black.

(it's a Twin Peaks reference, you philistines)

Possible appliance?

[Mondor]

I think that probably this nano-material was created not only for painting walls, or even not for walls at all, but for some more trivial things. Like planes, for example.

If no light comes out, will I see the some details, or just a black contour of the plane/rocket?

If soldiers uniform will be covered by plates of this material, will sniper see anything but the black hole in space? The same is about tanks - no details means you have to know its construction to hit the most vulnerable point?

Taking into account that even teflon was created for military, I wonder what was the real intention to create this one.

An old trick with new material

[Anonymous Coward]

reading through the article.... "Using a technique called oblique angle deposition, the researchers deposited silica nanorods at an angle of precisely 45 degrees on top of a thin film of aluminum nitride" So the material is "new" but the trick is old.... photographers, particularly in macro photography and photographing small products (a relative term, small for me is anything smaller than a coffee table - for a professional industrial photographer friend of mine "small" is anything smaller than a light truck) often like to use velvet (or velvet like) backdrops to minimise distracting background and the effect of reflected studio lights. When wanting a almost perfectly black background you take black velvet and angle it at roughly 45 degrees to the line from your subject to the camera (roughly is generally good enough).... same basic principle as here but obviously working with a material far less reflective then even black velvet

Political Correctness folks!!!

[spankey51]

Don't you mean: "Africanamericanest Material"