Ever heard of the amazing product aerogel? It’s the lowest density product currently known to man, 50-99.5% air and yet theoretically can hold 50-4,000 times its weight in applied force.

Maybe you’ve heard aerogel’s nickname ‘Frozen Smoke’? Perhaps I missed this one in science class — never my best subject — but this sounds extremely useful.

Invented over 75 years ago by an American it has been used more by NASA than anybody else to date, but is growing in practical uses like strengthening tennis rackets and even cleaning up pollutants. Somebody ring up Al Gore, aerogel is green!

Check out this detailed article from maltaStar:

In the laboratory, a metal plate coated in 6mm of aerogel was left almost unscathed by a direct dynamite blast. … Aerogel is described by scientists as the “ultimate sponge”, with millions of tiny pores on its surface making it ideal for absorbing pollutants in water.

In 2018 the first manned mission planned for Mars is including spacesuits lined with aerogel. Have aerogel, will travel.

When chemistry professors are labeling something an “amazing material” it’s time to renew faith that if man can create this, he (or she, no sexism here) can and will find cures for diseases. Now if only some super IQ brain could figure out how to make human beings not go to war and kill each other needlessly. Don’t laugh, aerogel is already being used in the military.

How long before aerogel could be used as an aphrodisiac and complete the cycle of real world uses? Too crude suggesting aerogel has viagra properties? How long before Mashable creates a ‘god’ list of 300+ aerogel uses? You got me, I’m joking on the last two three.

Aerogel? Right on.

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