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Engineers Create World's Lightest Material
ackthpt writes "A team of engineers claims to have created the world's lightest material. Made from a lattice of hollow metallic tubes, the material is less dense than aerogels and metallic foams, yet retains strength due to the small size of the lattice structure (abstract). The material's density is 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter. Among other things, it's potentially useful for insulation, battery electrodes, and sound dampening."
A Series of Tubes, eh?
0.9mg/cm^3 is 0.9kg/m^3, i.e. lighter than air (1.2kg/m^3). I call shenanigans.
Well, I guess Scotty and the rest of the crew finally got here. Watch the sky for Klingon warbirds and flying whales!
...and slightly convenient, too.
Week before it was the blackest material ever.
Last week it was the slipperiest.
This week it's the lightest.
What's on for next week? Heaviest? Densest? Whitest? Most beige?
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
I understand it'll be horribly expensive right now and that production prices will drop, but cheap enough for the likes of insulation? Or are we talking space station stuff here?
Would it be feasible to replace drywall. It sounds like a better insulator than drywall, not to mention its sound dampening effects. What would be the effects of dust from it on the lungs? Will it suffer the same fate as Asbestos?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
My first consideration after reading the article is 'now all those Cloud cosplayers can finally carry durable swords'.
That does assume the costs get low enough, but a sturdy replica giant sword at less than 10kg would improve many such costumes.
The problem with aerogels is that they can be very finicky during production, and unless you make them hydrophobic (or is it hydrophillic?) they can start to dissolve from as little as a single drop of sweat.
Some friends and I got some lab equipment during a "Lost Our Grant" sale, which included a high-pressure autoclave. We thought making aerogel would be a hoot, but damn is that stuff difficult to produce. It is relatively cheap, but during the supercritical drying phase, you'd best not bump the autoclave, and you better have mixed everything right. That stuff is like the comedy souffle of the future.
Anyway, the novelty wears off after you've played with the stuff for 20 minutes. The novelty of watching the cat bat it around takes about an hour.
0.9mg/cm^3 is 0.9kg/m^3, i.e. lighter than air (1.2kg/m^3). I call shenanigans.
The freaking Universe has a density of 9.9x10^-27 kg/m^3
Make of that what you will!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
In jokes regarding being lightheaded.
-- Chaos, panic, pandemonium... My job here is done!
I guess the editors didn't appreciate my flights of fancy!
wisebabo writes
"Wow, so here's something that beats even aerogel (which I understand is 99.9% empty space; this new material made from metal, is 99.99% empty space!)!
Anyway, in typical slashdot.fashion, knowing nothing about its mechanical properties (other than the article says it could be a good insulator or sound absorber) not to mention knowing nothing about how it is made or what it costs, let me propose two applications:
1) take a large slab and wrap it in an airtight non-gas permeable membrane. Pump out the air. Voila! You now have a lighter than air structure that doesn't use expensive helium or flammable hydrogen. Let the new age of dirigibles (and floating in mid-air furniture) begin!
2) Find a way to make this from its raw materials in a vacuum and in zero-g (hopefully it won't require a large amount of super-critical fluids like liquid CO2 that aerogels do). Launch a not-too-heavy manufacturing plant into LEO and make a (VERY) big cube or sphere of this stuff. Voila! Just like aerogels, you'll have a material that'll be perfect for capturing or at least slowing down all the hypervelocity space junk just like the "Stardust" and "Genesis" probes did. This'll be perfect for getting all the tiny particles and "flakes" that are too small to chase down, zap with a laser or perhaps even track via telescope or radar. Because it's very light, it'll be economical to launch something very big. (Best to attach an ion engine or some low thrust, high efficiency engine to change/maintain orbit).
2b) Oh well, as long as we're dreaming; if you can make this in space, it'd be perfect for making heat shields that weigh almost nothing (and are very very compact to launch because you're just launching the raw materials right?). Could be useful for any probe that's heading to any planet with an atmosphere or reentry to earth. Good for BIG solar shields (a la the movie "Sunshine") also.
2c) Okay, last one, I promise. If it deforms in a predictable manner, how about using it as an "airbag" replacement? After the (huge) heat shield has done it's work, the space probe could be cushioned upon impact with something stronger than an airbag without being prohibitively heavy. (Won't have to use that crazy "sky crane" like they're going to try with the MSL).
Anyway, here's to totally uninformed speculation!"
Again?
But can it run Linux?
Here's a repost of my post I submitted yesterday (don't know why they rejected it, probably thought I was too hair brained).
Anyway, here are some applications for a lighter than air substance!
wisebabo writes
"Wow, so here's something that beats even aerogel (which I understand is 99.9% empty space; this new material made from metal, is 99.99% empty space!)!
Anyway, in typical slashdot.fashion, knowing nothing about its mechanical properties (other than the article says it could be a good insulator or sound absorber) not to mention knowing nothing about how it is made or what it costs, let me propose two applications:
1) take a large slab and wrap it in an airtight non-gas permeable membrane. Pump out the air. Voila! You now have a lighter than air structure that doesn't use expensive helium or flammable hydrogen. Let the new age of dirigibles (and floating in mid-air furniture) begin!
2) Find a way to make this from its raw materials in a vacuum and in zero-g (hopefully it won't require a large amount of super-critical fluids like liquid CO2 that aerogels do). Launch a not-too-heavy manufacturing plant into LEO and make a (VERY) big cube or sphere of this stuff. Voila! Just like aerogels, you'll have a material that'll be perfect for capturing or at least slowing down all the hypervelocity space junk just like the "Stardust" and "Genesis" probes did. This'll be perfect for getting all the tiny particles and "flakes" that are too small to chase down, zap with a laser or perhaps even track via telescope or radar. Because it's very light, it'll be economical to launch something very big. (Best to attach an ion engine or some low thrust, high efficiency engine to change/maintain orbit).
2b) Oh well, as long as we're dreaming; if you can make this in space, it'd be perfect for making heat shields that weigh almost nothing (and are very very compact to launch because you're just launching the raw materials right?). Could be useful for any probe that's heading to any planet with an atmosphere or reentry to earth. Good for BIG solar shields (a la the movie "Sunshine") also.
2c) Okay, last one, I promise. If it deforms in a predictable manner, how about using it as an "airbag" replacement? After the (huge) heat shield has done it's work, the space probe could be cushioned upon impact with something stronger than an airbag without being prohibitively heavy. (Won't have to use that crazy "sky crane" like they're going to try with the MSL).
Anyway, here's to totally uninformed speculation!"
All of these heinous copyright bills have either been introduced or heavily co-sponsored by republicans. The DMCA, for example, was introduced by Republican Howard Coble and 6 of the 9 co-sponsors being republicans, too. The notion that only the Democrats are the lackeys of the copyright lobby just doesn't match reality. Both sides are equally to blame since both overwhelmingly support this shit.
"The resulting material has a density of 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimetre. By comparison the density of silica aerogels - the world's lightest solid materials - is only as low as 1.0mg per cubic cm. The metallic micro-lattices have the edge because they consist of 99.99% air and of 0.01% solids."
1 mg/cm3
1 g/dm3
1 kg/m3
Wikipedia: "Seawise Giant, later Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, and Knock Nevis, was a ULCC supertanker and the longest ship ever built, and possessed the greatest deadweight tonnage ever recorded. Fully laden, her displacement was 657,019 tonnes (646,642 long tons; 724,239 short tons), the heaviest ship of any kind, and with a draft of 24.6 m (81 ft), she was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant
"Tonnage: 260,941 GT
214,793 NT
Displacement: 81,879 long tons light ship
646,642 long tons full load
Length: 458.45 m (1,504.10 ft)
Beam: 68.8 m (225.72 ft)
Draught: 24.611 m (80.74 ft)
Depth: 29.8 m (97.77 ft)
Propulsion: Steam Turbine
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Capacity: 564,763 DWT"
458x30x688=9453120 m3
646642000/9453120 = 68.4 kg/m3
So, it has a lower density than a supertanker!
it's potentially useful for insulation, battery electrodes
Sounds like a neat trick if you can do it.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
It's not the "lightest substance". It might be the least dense (important distinction). And it might not be, because I would have thought that gaseous helium would be less dense. Perhaps they mean "least dense solid"?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Forgive me if this is redundant, but isn't lightness or heaviness dependent upon the mass of something and the strength of the gravitational field it happens to be shitting in?
g/cc is not a unit of weight, right?
Call Rocky and Bullwinkle. We must protect this precious resource from Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, lest they steal it.
On a more serious note, what's the mass of this stuff needed to fill a Volkswagen?
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Among other things, it's potentially useful for insulation, battery electrodes, and sound dampening
Super-low-density materials don't generally lend themselves well to this - this would be a truly exceptional material if it makes a good acoustic absorber.
You can make Slashdot articles out of it.
Have gnu, will travel.
Even if they don't, if it's lighter than air AND strong it might make some nice postage-saving packing material.
Just be careful when you open it. If you thought picking up Styrofoam peanuts off the floor was messy, just try cleaning up the ceiling!
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The weight of the internet has been estimated: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2057018/Internet-weighs-strawberry.html
I was hoping it had great thermal conductivity.
But noooo. It has to be light and insulating.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
What, more than "Carrie" from Europe's "Final Countdown" album?
requires it to be strong, nor particularly light. How about lighter road bike frames (which is the first application that I care about :D)?
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.