What Is Frozen Smoke?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Science, Technology
Apparently a highly usable, remarkably light solid that’s made up of approximately 99.8% air.
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.
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.
And did you know you can buy the stuff? This website is apparently sold out, but they were selling vials of it!
Here’s a pic of its heat resistance…
Here’s how much weight it can hold…
And here’s a guy who wants to make sweet love to a cube of it.
I now pronounce you husband and Aerogel.
- Provides 39 times more insulating than the best fiberglass insulation
- Is 1,000 times less dense than glass
- Was used on the Mars Pathfinder rover
For more info, you can visit the Aerogel page at Wikipedia.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 and is filed under Science, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 am
stop leeching you moron….
September 2nd, 2007 at 12:36 am
So, Nasa hasn’t put it on the antique space shuttle bomb that it sends hapless astronauts into space with?
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:07 am
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September 2nd, 2007 at 6:10 am
Now this is what I call sweet salvation.
Although, frozen smoke?? Could the alias been any more badass than this?
September 2nd, 2007 at 7:56 am
We finally have a material which is strong enough to make a chsttity belt for Paris Hilton out of!
September 2nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
[...] Could I build a bicycle frame with it? [...]
September 6th, 2007 at 8:45 am
AWESOME!!!!!!
a very good discovery
can do a lot of things in de future
hope they dont make some new warhead out of it
FINGERS CROSSED
October 30th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Remarkable… thanks for sharing.
This could make a great solution to a room (if costs ever go down) that requires low-humidity:
“Aerogel is a powerful desiccant, rapidly absorbing any moisture in your fingertips”. I wonder how the moisture-absorbing properties graph after long-term exposure in a humid environment.
energy transfer properties are incredible also:
“negates just about any kind of energy transfer - thermal, electrical or acoustic.” Alreeady see benefits for musicians here also.
The only serious flaw, from the quick reading I’ve done is that it shatters like glass.