Stealth Paint From German Inventor Werner Nickel

Gerhardius writes "Werner Nickel sounds like a Disney-style wacky inventor. He moved to the UAE to develop his previous invention: he had bred a worm whose excrement made it possible to grow radishes in the dry desert sand. That project failed so he moved on to the next item on his agenda, naturally a radar absorbing paint. While it certainly is not unique, there is some interesting history behind the development, and a proposed civilian use."

Comments

Still a long way to go

[KDR_11k]

he had bred a worm whose excrement made it possible to grow radishes in the dry desert sand.

But can that excrement allow humans to see the future and travel faster than light?

Re:Still a long way to go

[porkmusket]

LSD in the dessert? Far out man, I'll take another brownie please

Re:Still a long way to go

[CRCulver]

But can that excrement allow humans to see the future and travel faster than light?

If you don't get it, the OP is a reference to Frank Herbert's novel Dune where the chemical produced by the sandwords of the desert planet Arrakis proved the key to faster-than-light travel by giving starship steersmen superhuman powers.

While I admire Herbert's creation of a science fiction novel based on modern studies of desert ecology, I felt the whole spice deal weakened the hard sci-fi goodness of what otherwise would have been a less fantastical book.

Let me guess ..

[ccozan]

worm whose excrement made it possible to grow radishes in the dry desert sand.. .. the radishes are quite ... spicy?

Re:Civilian use?

[Brandybuck]

Except that commercial airports use transponders, not radar, to locate planes.

Re:Civilian use?

[JustOK]

So, paint the transponder.

Uses

[camperslo]

All that stressful military/terrorist stuff aside, that paint might just be good for silencing cell phones in movie theatres. It's generally illegal to jam any sort of licensed transmission, but creating an environment that weakens the signal is a good workaround.

Perhaps adding a layer of the paint to some consumer products, like PCs, might be a viable way of reducing the R.F. noise (and security issues that go with it?) leaking out.

Re:Uses

[v1]

Regardless of who you are, it is not my responsibility to make sure you are available in case of an emergency. If you need to be available, it is your responsibility to adjust your behavior to increase the odds that you are available, given the provided situations you find yourself in. I don't care if you're a doctor with a patient in the ICU, a parent with a sitter at home, or anyone else for that matter.

A doctor will also be without cell phone service when taking a tour of the Great Mounds Cave. That doesn't mean we should put up cell towers in there. What it means he should not be there while on call. Same goes for a theatre or any other venue where cell reception is naturally or artificially unavailable. Although any venue where a reasonable person would expect cell service but cannot get it, should have reasonable notice. In this case a note on the ticket or at the door to the theatre.

I'm so tired of people trying to make me responsible for their bad decisions. That's what your parents are for. While you're under 18. After that, take ownership of yourself.

There should be many applications for this

[zappepcs]

Think of a more efficient microwave oven. If it can scatter radar signals, it might just be a better coating for the inside of microwave ovens.

Then there is beamed power applications???

Perhaps this might lead to a method of shielding astronauts on their way to Mars? If it can deflect/scatter radar, can it be made to protect the Hubble?

There are literally thousands of applications where some shielding would be preferred to the current methods, especially in Military applications. I think that if he keeps it up, he might well help us discover how to shield from all manner of things. Shielding in Nuclear power plants is an issue that needs to be tackled better.

Imagine that if it can deal with radar, perhaps there is a way that this can lead to better coatings for fiber optic cables? 30Gbps not good enough for you? How would 100 Gbps with FTTH sound? It's all in how you deal with shielding.

Anything that is as thin as paint and does the job can lead to major improvements in many other things. I hope something really good comes of this and not just some Patriot Missle avoidance tactic.

Re:Civilian use?

[Deadstick]

Oh, jeez...

The transponders are in the airplanes, not on the airports. They help the airport's radar to see airplanes.

A transponder is a combination of a receiver and a transmitter that receives the pulses from a radar; generates a train of pulses that encode the identification and altitude of the airplane; and transmits them back to the radar. That way the guy sitting at the radar not only sees the airplane more easily, but knows which airplane it is and how high.

rj

Re:Energy = heat

[TransEurope]

Actally the energy of radar is very low, except you stand directly in front of the emitter. Or when was the last time you got cooked by the radar from the airport next to you? You must have really good sensors to detect such low heat. I assume the heat of computers and electronics on board of a plane or the exhausts of the turbines are the much bigger problem for the one doesn't want to be 'seen'.

From TFA

[CopaceticOpus]

Nickel, who is literally bubbling over with ideas...

Oh, is he? Does he literally carry a pan around to catch them? Do they literally need to mop up behind him when he walks across the room?

Re:Civilian use?

[RoboRay]

That's really not how transponders work. They do not receive the radar pulses and send them back to the radar with ID information encoded into the pulses.

They are totally seperate and unrelated systems operating on radically different frequencies. The only things they have in common is that the base station antenna is typically mounted somewhere on the rotating radar antenna so that they are ensured to both be pointing in the same direction, and they generally share a single display, with the information received from the airborne transponders superimposed over the radar video. You can break either system, and the other one will still work perfectly, just so long as the antenna is still turning and the display still works.

Re:Or maybe the author is On LSD

[Salus Victus]

When light hits a surface, it can be reflected, or transmitted. If' it's transmitted then it's going to go through the paint and strike the metal and be reflected.

What are you talking about? Matt Black paint, applied to a mirror, does not result in a surface that reflects visible light.

Paint can certainly absorb photons, and translate the energy to a wavelength no longer recognizable as related to the source.

How did the parent post get rated so highly? Has the Slashdot community fallen so far that it's blinded by the mere mention of "scientific" concepts like index of refraction?

Not new, not even of this century

[Ancient_Hacker]

Radar absorbing paint isn't as exotic as it sounds. Basically it's paint that is "black" at radar frequencies. Nothing more than iron or ferrite filings in a Rustoleum base. Or better yet, go to an airshow for a free sample. The F-16's usually have some good RAP flaking off by the nosegear cover hinges.

The japanese have been painting RAP on their skyscrapers for decades now to lessen FM and TV ghosting.