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Engineers Just Unveiled a New Blackest-Ever Material, Even Darker Than Vantablack
Science Alert ^ | 13 Sept 2019 | David Nield

Posted on 09/14/2019 9:56:55 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

You might think you already know black – even super-black Vantablack, previously the blackest material known to science – but researchers just came up with a material that takes black to a new level of blackness.

The new, as-yet-unnamed ultra-black material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs), microscopic carbon strings that are a little like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, according to the team behind the project.

And here's the rub – this CNT material can absorb more than 99.995 percent of incoming light, beating the 99.96 percent that Vantablack is able to absorb.

MIT artist-in-residence Diemut Strebe has worked with the researchers to coat a 16.78-carat natural yellow diamond, estimated to be worth $2 million, in the ultrablack material.

What should be a bright, sparkling, highly reflective gem ends up a lightless void.

"Because of the extremely high light absorptive qualities of the CNTs, any object, in this case a large diamond coated with CNTs, becomes a kind of black hole absent of shadows,

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Science
KEYWORDS: backmatter; black; blackestblack; colorblack
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Blacker that a black cat it a coal bin a mile inside a cave on a moonless night.


41 posted on 09/14/2019 11:39:28 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Everyone who favors socialism plans on the government taking other people's money, not theirs.)
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To: maddog55

50 Shades of Black...

I’ve never seen fifty at once?

But near Cicero Ave and the Eisenhower Expressway, on payday at the old Hawthorne Works, many shades of black available for a fee.


42 posted on 09/14/2019 11:39:39 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

That’s racist.

Don’t imagine there’s much of a market for that diamond now.


43 posted on 09/14/2019 11:41:20 AM PDT by bgill
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To: jack308

And all this time I thought a radiometer was a glass bulb with the B/W spinning paddles!

Neat stuff!


44 posted on 09/14/2019 11:44:32 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Soon, a CNT Black car!
= = =

How would that do vs. a cop’s radar?


45 posted on 09/14/2019 11:53:26 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (This is not /s. It is just as viable as any MSM, maybe more so!)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I didnt read the article yet. Whats it called... Yaphettkottoite? Maybe something ironic like Dolezalium or Seankingium?


46 posted on 09/14/2019 11:58:36 AM PDT by Captainpaintball
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Is Vantablack the opposite of Vanna White?


47 posted on 09/14/2019 11:59:00 AM PDT by rw4site (Little men want Big Government!)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I apparently didnt read your post, either...


48 posted on 09/14/2019 11:59:51 AM PDT by Captainpaintball
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Guess it’s up to me to add the obligatory Spinal Tap reference...

Nigel Tufnel: There’s something about this that’s so black, it’s like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.


49 posted on 09/14/2019 12:00:31 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Black is Black!


50 posted on 09/14/2019 12:00:35 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: rw4site

Is Vantablack the opposite of Vanna White?

VERY NICE!!!
Two thumbs up!!!


51 posted on 09/14/2019 12:03:50 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message.)
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To: mowowie
That reminds me of a scene from Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation.

"That's not a light. It's a dark. You turn it on and the room actually gets darker."
- Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Hobbs
52 posted on 09/14/2019 12:04:51 PM PDT by ph_balanced
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To: mowowie

What would it be like standing in a room covered in this stuff with a small 40 watt bulb hanging in the middle...

Interesting thought experiment. I imagine one would see only the bulb glowing in an apparent void. Would probably be a bit disorienting.


53 posted on 09/14/2019 12:10:53 PM PDT by Flick Lives (MSM, the Enemy of the People since 1898)
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To: DUMBGRUNT
Reminds me of the alien spaceship in the film "Quaetermass and the Pit" aka "Five Million Years to Earth"
54 posted on 09/14/2019 12:41:53 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: ph_balanced

Yeah, just like Donald Duck’s uncle, Gyro Gearloose, inventor of the Gloom light.


55 posted on 09/14/2019 12:45:15 PM PDT by JohnnyP (Thinking is hard work (I stole that from Rush).)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Why a diamond? One could dip a diamond in liquid asphalt and there’d be no reflections.


56 posted on 09/14/2019 12:47:51 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: mowowie

Ninjas wonder too.


57 posted on 09/14/2019 12:48:38 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: DUMBGRUNT

100% light absorption would be invisible?

Sure, it could cast a shadow and you would not be able to see though it, but I can see some great military applications.


58 posted on 09/14/2019 12:49:16 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I thought the new name for black was “colored” as in people of color.


59 posted on 09/14/2019 12:50:19 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you care!)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
"The mechanisms that allow heat in the atmosphere to be radiated back into space are at the heart of the global warming debate."

If the atmosphere did not retain heat at night we would all freeze to death at sunset. Not to mention fry during the day.

60 posted on 09/14/2019 12:51:36 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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