World's lightest solid, lighter than air, hard like glass.

Originally posted by FreeMason

a single inch thickness of this silica-based material has the internal surface area of a basketball court and can protect a human hand from the heat of a blowtorch.

If you think that's impressive, you need to check out STARLITE!

The first demonstration of starlite I remember seeing was when an egg was painted with a thin layer of if, put under a blow torch for a few minutes, removed, and then cracked to reveal the completely un-touched contents.

[edit on 9-10-2008 by C.H.U.D.]

thats some pretty interesting stuff. but if it cant be tooled as people have suggested then its use would be extremely limited. Physicists and chemists make some pretty intruiging materials. I happen to be deeply facinated by super fluids and bose einstein condensates. If this new material does turn out to be useful I'd put it up there with carbon nano tubes when it comes to the impact it will have on the construction trade

If it's so hard to tool, how are they using it to collect comet dust? Also, why are they using it for this?

very good find fm, you know i wonder if the space administration will use this stuff to make a large space hotel or something in space. rooms for rent in space. stuff like that, wow. very good find. or use this material underwater for uses there. i look forward to more finds from you fm.

and this would protect from the side-effect of a polar shift ?

reply to post by Cyberbian


Make it from helium filled brick with this stuff.

I'll volunteer to test a glider made from aerogel.
The sample packs look pretty pointless.What about decent size sheets of the stuff?
Bet the military is all over the stuff now.