Scientists hail ‘frozen smoke’ as material that will change world

[Miss Chybil]

A MIRACLE material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: “It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.”

Aerogel is nicknamed “frozen smoke” and is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide. The result is a substance that is capable of insulating against extreme temperatures and of absorbing pollutants such as crude oil.

more...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2284349.ece

Sounds vetty interestink!

[Akoto]

1. And it only causes cancer and minor heart explosion!

;)

[Miss Chybil]

3. Ah, you should read the rest of the article. It seems to be pretty fascinating stuff! nt

[Akoto]

5. I know. Just a little humor.

;)

[Miss Chybil]

7. I know, too. ;-)

I actually had the same reaction when I first saw the headline! Such skeptics, we are!

[Spinzonner]

2. Any relation to Ice-9 ?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Pics of frozen smoke

[Miss Chybil]

8. Wow! nt

[Staph]

12. Looks like transparent aluminum to me!

;)

[jgraz]

6. I wonder if this can reliably hold a vacuum

If so, it would be far lighter than helium and be great for high-altitude balloons.

[jody]

9. Sounds like it has potential to replace the space shuttle tiles. n/t

[sandnsea]

10. Aspen Aerogels

This stuff is going to transform the world - provided there are no hidden cancer or environmental problems. Very awesome stuff.

http://www.aerogel.com/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. so long as any christian bigot is barred from benefiting, I am happy

they want to throw their hysterical, historical fairy tales at us and demand that we must replace science with crap, I seriously think we should return the favor.

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Agreed

Those who condemn science should not be allowed the benefits of science.

[theredpen]

14. Where did that come from?

How did we get from aerogels to fundies?

BTW, the inventor of the transistor was an unrepentant white supremacist, so I hope you aren't using any of those to post about your ideologically pure buying habits.

[Miss Chybil]

15. LOL! That did come from out of left field. I never knew that about the transistor... nt

[theredpen]

16. At least William Shockley was an atheist

William Shockley, the most noted of the three inventors of the transistor, was an atheist — he never once went to church, even as a child — so he would not be subject to antifaschits' boycott.

After he helped invent the transistor, Shockley spent the 50's alienating everyone he knew. He then became popular on the lecture circuit.

Unfettered by such fairy tales as "we're all God's children" and "everyone is equal withing the eyes of Jesus," he promoted his views that blacks were "dumbing down" the gene pool and should be encouraged (along with other people with IQ's below 100) to voluntarily sterilize themselves. His ideas were similar to those that gave rise to the Nazi T-4 program, which was a prototype for the Holocaust. That opinion wasn't a good idea to put in print, as Shockley sued a reporter at the Atlanta Journal Constitution for pointing this out in 1981.

Shockley died in 1989. At least one of his estranged children reported that they didn't even know until they read it in the paper.

[Occulus]

17. How did we get from aerogels to fundies?

Ask Bill Nye, the science guy.

/snark

(first Google result from the search "Bill Nye booed")

[theredpen]

18. How did we get from aerogel to Bill Nye?!

Seriously.

I heard about the Bill Nye stuff at least a year ago. What does it have to do with aerogel?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

19. I promise never to buy a transister only computer

does that help?

If we have 25% of the country feeding their children the idea that the world is 6000 yr old, and that Adam walked Dino on a very long leash, why should they benefit from the very science that proves their ideas are dangerous fables? aerogel's benefits, as a filter, as an insulator, as a protective deevice - this is the culmination of millions of man (and woman) hours of scientific thought and rational behavior. dare we put it in the hands of woefully and willfully ignorami?

[theredpen]

20. A non-transistor-only computer?

Is that like a pair of sneakers made by child labor that comes in a box made by adults? :P

aerogel's benefits, as a filter, as an insulator, as a protective deevice - this is the culmination of millions of man (and woman) hours of scientific thought and rational behavior. dare we put it in the hands of woefully and willfully ignorami?

This statement could also apply to modern medicine. Are you suggesting we shut people out of hospitals if they don't believe in evolution, as supported by genetics?

I believe that humans have human rights. This includes a right to be equal in under the laws of a country and the right to hold religious beliefs that do not infringe on other's human rights. The beliefs of creationists do not infringe on your human rights, why do you insist on infringing theirs — or do you not support the UN Declaration of Human Rights?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. Don't tempt me. enforced enhanced darwinism?

The next step will be eugenics. or whatever Gene called it. Naw, I have some limits.

[Tesha]

26. No, just Schockley.

> BTW, the inventor of the transistor was an unrepentant white supremacist,

No, just Schockley, and possibly, only in his later years.

Bardeen and Brattain seemed to be normal humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bardeen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Brattain

Tesha

[theredpen]

28. Thanks for the clarification

Shockley's breakthrough relied heavily on work contributed by Bardeen and Brattain. It's arguable that they would have discovered the bipolar transistor without Shockley, but he beat them to it. Bell Labs considered them a team, but Shockley didn't.

Although the three won the Nobel Prize for an earlier transistor technology, the bipolar transistor was the first commercially-viable transistor. Although Bell Labs credited the whole team for this invention, it was largely Shockley's brainchild and the technology was based on ideas published in his prominent book on electron mobility in semiconductors. The leap from laboratory to marketplace is what earned Shockley his popular acclaim as the inventor of the transistor.

[krispos42]

21. They can make one that is less dense than air!

According to Wikipedia, they can make one that is 1.0 mg/cm³, whereas air is 1.2 mg/cm³. That's 17% less dense then air! Imagine what you could do with that!

Party balloons that never deflate. Emergency signals you could carry in your car or boat. How about a never-fail balloon or dirigable?

[Maq]

24. Bushs' brain is made from this Stuff

also there is only a small amount in the cranial cavity.

[krispos42]

25. Now now now, don't insult frozen smoke without it being here to defend itself!

:rofl:


Welcome to DU!

[semillama]

29. How about personal-use dirigibles for everyday transport?

Instead of the jet packs or helicopter cars, why not a personal dirigible?

(well, there are plenty of non-technological reasons why it wouldn't work (you think road rage is bad, think balloon rage, and then there's those pesky crosswinds...)

[Beelzebud]

22. It's been around for awhile. We used it in the Stardust comet probe.

For a while, you could even order it from United Nuclear.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/aerogel.htm

Some cool stuff for sale on that site. Strangely enough, it's ran by Robert Lazar (Area 51 quack guy).

[Tesha]

27. "Silicone in the 1990s"?

"Silicone in the 1990s"?

Who makes this shit up? Silicone was certainly well in use
by the early 1970s, and for essentially all the same applications
it's still used for today. It was marketed big-time by GE and
its big consumer impact back then was as a miracle "lifetime"
bathtub caulking.

Tesha

[architect359]

30. ...and you can buy it too!

Well, left over pieces anyway. It seems that the more of a regular shape they are in the more expensive they get. See here: http://www.unitednuclear.com/aerogel.htm

Yeah, these things have been around for a while now - I remember my college room mate showed me a sample in his lab - at first I thought that he was showing me some ultra clear glass container with smoke in it. It is the weirdest material that I have ever held. My eyes register it as less substantial than it really is. I was thinking that it would be pliable, well, like a gel. Nope, feels really solid. Breaks like glass too. I love it!

[skepticscott]

31. Yeah, well

the Segway was supposed to change the world too...still waiting for that one...