Scientists Have Developed a Material So Dark That You Can't See It

gbjbaanb writes A British company is developing a new material that's so black it absorbs all but 0.035 percent of the visual light, making it the darkest material ever created. Of course, apart from making album covers, it conducts heat 7 times better than copper and is 10 times stronger than steel. "The nanotube material, named Vantablack, has been grown on sheets of aluminium foil by the Newhaven-based company. While the sheets may be crumpled into miniature hills and valleys, this landscape disappears on areas covered by it. 'You expect to see the hills and all you can see it's like black, like a hole, like there's nothing there. It just looks so strange,' said Ben Jensen, the firm's chief technical officer.

Comments

I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[ArcadeMan]

And I took a photo of the material.

Re:I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I suspect the material was carefully designed so that the scientists could show off how bright they are (in comparison).

Re:I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a link to the photos without the blogspam..

Don't think of me as ungrateful, but I'd rather read correspondence from a thousand nigerian princes (with p3ni$) problems from now until the day I die than click on a link to the Mail.

Re:I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[Anonymous Coward]

"Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid."

Re:I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[Kazoo the Clown]

That would make one heck of a tinfoil hat...

Re:I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[pacman on prozac]

I'm not sure what is stranger, the material or the Daily Mail publishing something that appears to be factual and informative....

Re:I was able to sneak into their laboratories

[AbRASiON]

I've actually managed to find a picture of it being used as intended.
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portable_Hole_8289.jpg

galactic hyper-hearse

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the weird colour scheme that freaks me. Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls, which are labeled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it. Hey, what is this, some kind of galactic hyper-hearse?

Re:galactic hyper-hearse

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what happens when you try to steal Hotblack Desiato's stunt ship...

It's like, how much more black could this be?

[Anonymous Coward]

And the answer is none. None more black.

Disaster Area

[Rah'Dick]

I hear a Mr. Hotblack Desiato wants to buy all of it. The material and the team that invented it... He also might buy the whole solar system while he's at it.

Re:Disaster Area

[Zocalo]

Since he's currently spending a year dead for tax reasons I doubt that would be the case, but in any event since it's only totally black and not totally frictionless as well I don't think it would be suitable for crashing into a star at the climax of the next Disaster Area concert anyway.

Prior art - Wile E. Coyote's portable holes.

[jpellino]

Can't remember if he got them from Acme or not...

Re:Here's a better article with actual photos

[Anonymous Coward]

better article

Daily Mail

This material appears to be so black that it made me black out and wake up in a crazy alternate universe where a Daily Mail article isn't considered to be absolutely terrible.

Looks like they'll get rich

[russotto]

This is the sort of material which could be used for artificial hearts for lawyers, bankers, and politicians.