Last month, a team of scientists from HRL Laboratories, University of California Irvine, and The California Institute of Technology announced the development of microlattice, apparently the lightest material ever. 99.99% of the material’s volume is open, giving the lattice of hollow tubes a density about one hundred times less than Styrofoam’s. It’s also extraordinarily resistant to compression and can absorb much greater energy than most metals. Each tube wall in the lattice is roughly 100 nanometers thick, or about 1000 times thinner than the width of a human hair.

Check it out:

http://www.gizmag.com/ultralight-micro-lattice-material/20537/

Or read the abstract from November’s Science:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6058/962

 

(Image credit: Dan Little, HRL Laboratories)

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