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It's well-known that humans are capable of extraordinary creativity. However, if you dig deeper into our inventions, even those who've already discovered chocolate-covered pretzels might find themselves in awe. For example, were you aware that we have...
10. One-Way Bulletproof Glass
The challenges faced by the ultra-wealthy are unlike those of ordinary people. Based on the market dynamics that led to this development, the super-rich are concerned that the bulletproof glass protecting them from harm might also prevent them from being able to return fire.
Introducing one-way ballistic glass: it stops bullets from one side only, enabling return fire. How is this done, you ask? By layering two different plastics together — a hard acrylic layer, and a more flexible, elastic polycarbonate layer. The acrylic provides a tough surface under pressure. When a bullet hits this side, the acrylic flattens the bullet before shattering, dispersing its energy. The shock-absorbing back layer then contains the bullet (and the shattered acrylic) without breaking.
When shot from the opposite side, however, the bullet strikes the polycarbonate first, causing it to stretch initially. This bending fractures the brittle acrylic behind it, leaving no resistance once the bullet punches through, enabling the target to become the shooter. But don’t get too confident — you've just created a hole in your shield.
9. Liquid Glass
Once, dish soap didn’t exist. In the past, pans were cleaned using soda, vinegar, silver sand, Vim, or wire wool, but now a revolutionary spray-on coating could save a lot of effort and potentially make dish soap obsolete. Liquid Glass combines silicon dioxide with water or ethanol to create a spray that dries into a layer of “flexible, super-durable glass“. This layer is invisible (500 times thinner than a human hair), non-toxic, and repels liquids.
Liquid Glass would eliminate the need for scrubbing and make most cleaning products unnecessary since it also has antibacterial properties. Microbes that land on the surface struggle to stay there. Say goodbye to bleach and simply turn on hot water to sterilize a kitchen sink. In medical settings, this means a treated surface could be sanitized using only hot water, without the need for chemical disinfectants.
This coating can be used to treat fungal infections in plants and seal corks for better bottle closures. We aren’t selling it (promise!), but this stuff repels liquids, is non-toxic, flexible, anti-bacterial, breathable, durable, and invisible. Oh, and it's incredibly affordable. Either it's a miracle, or the fine print is hidden as well. Time will reveal the truth.
8. Amorphous Metal
Amorphous metal is a material enabling golf clubs to strike harder, bullets to hit with more impact, and engines and surgical knives to last longer. Despite its name, it combines the strength of metal with the surface hardness of glass. In the video above, two ball bearings are dropped — one on steel and the other on amorphous metal. The bearing on the amorphous metal bounces much higher and continues for an uncomfortably long time.
The impact of the bearing creates several small 'pits' in the steel, causing the steel to absorb and disperse the energy from the impact. On the other hand, the amorphous metal remains smooth, transmitting all the impact energy back into the bearing, causing it to bounce higher.
Most metals have a crystalline atomic structure, which is ordered and repetitive. When impacted or stressed, atomic planes in the metal can 'slip,' forming visible dents. Amorphous metal has a disordered, random atomic structure, preventing these slips and allowing the atoms to rebound to their original position.
7. Starlite
A plastic with exceptional heat resistance, Starlite’s thermal insulating properties are so remarkable that for a time, people thought its inventor was imagining things. Then, after the TV demonstration above, the British Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) reached out. They subjected it to heat bursts equivalent to nuclear flash levels, up to 75 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb. The sample remained intact, albeit slightly charred. One scientist commented, “Usually, we conduct a test every few hours because we need to wait for [the material] to cool down. With this one, we’re testing every 10 minutes, and it just sits there mocking us.”
Unlike other high-performance insulators, Starlite emits no toxic fumes when exposed to heat and is also remarkably lightweight. Its potential uses in space shuttles, firefighting gear, airliners, or military applications are boundless, yet Starlite has never left the lab. Inventor Maurice Ward passed away in 2011 without ever patenting or licensing his invention. What is known is that it’s made up of “up to 21 organic polymers and copolymers, along with small amounts of ceramics.”
6. Aerogel
First, imagine a porous material so light that a 2.5 centimeter (1 inch) cube of it could have the internal surface area of an entire football field. Now, stop imagining and realize that such a substance already exists. More of a category than a specific material, Aerogel is a shape that certain substances can be molded into. Its low mass makes it one of the best insulators available (an Aerogel window just 2.5 cm (1 in) thick has the same heat-protective properties as a window 25 cm (10 in) thick).
All of the lightest materials known to man are Aerogels. Silica Aerogel, which is essentially dried silicon gel, weighs only three times more than air. Though fragile, it can support over 1000 times its own weight. Graphene Aerogel (pictured above), made from carbon, is seven times lighter than air.
It has a spongy texture and can be made both hydrophobic (repelling water) and lipophilic (absorbing oil). For this reason, it is being promoted as a solution for cleaning up oil spills. Its enormous internal surface area allows it to absorb 900 times its own weight. Once saturated with oil, it can be 'wrung out,' thrown back into the water, and reused. And you thought carbon had no practical applications.
5. DMSO
DMSO is a chemical solvent, originally a byproduct of wood pulping. It had been around for nearly 100 years before its medical potential was uncovered in the 1960s. Dr. Jacobs discovered that it could penetrate skin rapidly and deeply without harming tissue. This opened up vast possibilities for delivering drugs across membranes and into the body without breaking the skin, eliminating the risk of infection.
DMSO also has its own therapeutic effects, reducing inflammation related to sprains, arthritis, and burns, offering immediate pain relief that can last up to six hours. It can even penetrate finger and toenails, making it useful for delivering antifungal treatments.
Unfortunately, DMSO has faced its challenges. By the time its medicinal potential was realized, it was already available commercially as an industrial chemical. Its widespread availability dampened its appeal to pharmaceutical companies, who saw no potential for profit if they couldn’t patent and monopolize it. Additionally, its side effects, including a pungent garlic-like breath, further hurt its marketability, which is why DMSO is now primarily used in veterinary medicine.
4. Carbon Nanotubes
A carbon nanotube is essentially a sheet of carbon that is just one atom thick, curled into a cylinder. At the molecular level, it resembles a roll of chicken wire and is the strongest known material to science. It is six times lighter than steel and could be hundreds of times stronger. These tubes also conduct heat more efficiently than diamond and electricity more effectively than copper.
Due to their minuscule thickness, carbon nanotubes are invisible to the naked eye. When in their raw form, they look like a petri dish filled with soot. To unlock their mechanical and electronic properties, it requires the ‘spinning’ of trillions of these tiny threads — a process that was not feasible until recently.
One of the more fascinating applications is the possibility of creating a cable for a space elevator (an idea that was previously unthinkable due to the challenge of creating a 100,000-kilometer (62,000-mile) cable that wouldn’t collapse under its own weight). Nanotubes could also be used in cancer treatment — thousands of them can fit inside a single cell, and when coated with folic acid, they target and bind to cancer cells. Infrared lasers would then heat the tubes, ideally killing the cancerous cells. Other potential uses include stronger, lighter body armor, more efficient wind turbine blades, and designing the smoothest cheese slicer imaginable.
3. D3O
Impact protection has always been a challenge — how can you create something that provides real protection without being too heavy or rigid? For example, plastic knee pads can limit movement while still transferring impacts to the bone.
D30 provides a clever solution to this challenge. It's a material made up of 'smart molecules' that move freely (similar to Play-Doh) under gentle pressure, but solidify when subjected to a hard impact. Jackets equipped with D30 pads are already available, offering both flexibility and protection from collisions with asphalt, baseball bats, or unexpected punches. The pads are low-profile, making them perfect for stunt performers or even police officers.
The way the material works is based on a concept you might remember from elementary school science experiments: it's similar to the behavior of cornstarch mixed with water. (Some people even fill pools with this mixture.)
2. BacillaFilla
Concrete gradually deteriorates, taking on a tired, pollution-stained gray hue and developing cracks along the way. Fixing these damages is not only costly but also complicated — for buildings with structural cracks, there’s often no quick fix. As a result, many buildings in seismic zones have been completely torn down.
A team of students at Newcastle University (UK) has engineered a genetically modified microbe that is 'programmed' to navigate tiny cracks in concrete, where it produces a combination of calcium carbonate and bacterial adhesive, effectively 'stitching' the structure back together.
The spores of the genetically altered BacillaFilla are designed to germinate only when they make contact with concrete. They can detect when they reach the bottom of a crack, and their repair process won’t begin until that point. They then harden to match the surrounding concrete’s strength, and possess a built-in self-destruct gene to prevent them from growing uncontrollably and forming concrete tumors. The project also addresses environmental concerns — 5% of all man-made carbon emissions come from concrete production. It's hoped these spores can extend the lifespan of structures that would otherwise be too expensive to replace.
1. Pykrete
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Two scientists from New York discovered a blend of ice and wood pulp that not only floated, but also had remarkable properties — as bulletproof as brick, shatter-resistant, and immune to melting. This material could be shaped like wood or cast into forms similar to metal. When submerged in water, a protective layer of wet wood pulp would form around it, preventing further melting, and theoretically, any ship made from this substance could be repaired while still at sea.
Despite its impressive features, Pykrete ultimately proved unsuitable for its original purpose. A 1,000-ton prototype was quickly constructed and kept frozen by a single-horsepower motor, but it was discovered that the ice would begin to sag unless kept at a constant temperature of -16°F, which would require a complex system of ducts. Additionally, the large quantity of wood pulp needed for its production would disrupt paper production. Pykrete, while creative and fascinating, turned out to be an unworkable idea.
