Aerogel
Posted on January 21, 2004
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Sometimes those science guys up and develop something that just so fantastically weird it’s completely mind-numbing. I can actually feel it: my mind, numb in awe: Aerogel.
“It’s better than anything you can think of,” said Glenn Tsuyuki, a manager with the Mars rover project.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t put much stock in a statement like that, but that guy’s from NASA: he’s paid to think.
It’s the lowest density of any solid, and it has the highest thermoinsulation properties. Though it would be very expensive, you could take a two- or three-bedroom house, insulate it with aerogel, and you could heat the house with a candle. But eventually the house would become too hot.
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aerogel slows soundwaves to about 10 percent of their speed in air, and because it has such a vast surface area for its volume, its use as a filtration agent could increase the capacity of desalination plants a thousandfold
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aerogel is transparent and releases light when struck by certain high-energy radiation, it provides an excellent means of counting atomic particles
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It can take 2,000 times its body weight without damage
In a fight between Aerogel and Superman, I bet Aerogel would kick his ass.
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