Chinese scientists have created the world’s lightest substance -- a material so insubstantial it can perch on the petals of a delicate flower without crushing them (see photo above).
A cubic centimeter of the record-setting stuff, carbon aerogel, has a mass of only 0.16 milligram, according to a new study by scientists at Zhejiang University. That’s 12 percent lighter than an equal volume of the previous record-holder, a substance known as aerographite.
Having trouble getting a handle just how light this new stuff really is? If the average human body were made entirely of carbon aerogel instead of flesh and bone, it would weigh only a quarter-pound!
Lightweight substances can have some pretty heavy-duty applications, and that certainly seems to be the case here. Durable and highly elastic, carbon aerogel may become a useful material in advanced electronics and a big player in pollution control, study co-author Dr. Chao Gao, a professor of polymer science and engineering at the university, told the Huffington Post in an email. Carbon aerogel can absorb up to 900 times its weight in liquid, he said.
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