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Nanotubes Form The Darkest Material Yet Created

Posted by samzenpus on from the none-more-black dept.

toxcspdrmn writes "Bad news for Spinal Tap fans. The BBC reports that researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, have produced the darkest known material by manufacturing "forests" of carbon nanotubes. This forms a surface that absorbs or scatters 99.9% of all incidental light."

7 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. wouldn't scattered light still be light? by XaXXon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    wouldn't it just be less 'mirror-like' and more matte if it scatters light? In order to be black from all angles, it would have to absorb all the energy. ?

  2. Re:Don't tell John Carmack! by rucs_hack · · Score: 2, Insightful


    Such a pity more young people havent read it.
    There are so many references to the books everywhere.

    Such a pity that so many people think Hitch-Hikers guide is just a book, and don't know about the Radio show from which it came.

  3. It is kinda disterbing by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That to pick up news that is happening 3 miles away from my house. From Slashdot hosted far away linking to the BBC even further away. I am sure most of the RPI students don't know about this yet... (being 7:00 in the morning) Colleges should really publicize their work more. It just could help them get those grants they are looking for.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  4. That's incident light, and asymptotic to boot by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Um, although this thing is by some measure "three times blacker", that's no big deal, in an energy absorption sense.

    It just means instead of using cheap carbon black, 99.6% blac, you use expensive and fragile nanotubes, 99.9% black.

    Not a significant increase in energy absorption, and not economical either.

  5. Re:I was going to ask... by Smidge204 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That is not an artile. That is a blog entry that copy and pasted a paragraph and stole a photo from an article. This is the article. Notice the difference: The blog contains a whopping 13 words, none of which actually relate to the story. The article, on the other hand, is a full page with lots of information and in-context quotes.

    Everything I said here applies yet again. If the purpose of the Internet is to serve as an open forum for disseminating information, then the typical blog is the antithesis of that purpose; the worst thing to happen to the Internet since AOL.
    =Smidge=

  6. Re:Don't tell John Carmack! by jank1887 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    please never ever again mention the film.

  7. Re:Don't tell John Carmack! by Drooling+Iguana · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What film? There was no film.

    --
    ... I'm addicted to placebos