more on aerogel (Score 5, Interesting)

I have a friend who works on this. Here is a NASA newspaper article on her work; here is her website, showing aerogel in many different configurations. If you want to know more about it, you could always drop her a line.

While I'm sure aerogel has many pracitcal uses (trying not to fall asleep here), the "cool" factor is also very high. I've seen some of her samples, and everything the article says is correct. It's so light it feels like the wind could take it; in fact, if you drop it in water, I think it dissolves. Since the material is so expensive, it's obviously something you don't want to do, since every last piece is precious.

As you might imagine, a material that's ultra-light and 'holographic' has artistic applications, too. The "brain" image made it onto the cover of Nature neuroscience, and wouldn't look out of place in a design magazine. When you see it up close, the image seems to be 'embedded' in the material, even though it's so light you could easily crush it with your hand. The airiness and delicacy of the material makes the image that much more striking.

While we're all attuned to the utilitarian value of materials like this, it's always neat to see what people outside of engineering can do with them.