Carbon Nanotubes
Nanotubes are a basic building block used in nanotechnology. Researches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have used them to build a material that is blacker than any other man-made material - it absorbs 99.9% of all light.The material comprised of a forest of cylinders as thin as one atom thick can be used in a variety of applications that require the harvesting of light - anything from highly efficient solar panels to cloaking devices straight out of a Star Trek episode. One could also potentially vary the light absorbency factor by harvesting a forest with nanotubes of varying structures.
The discovery is interesting in and of itself and is one heck of a scientific achievement. While it's not a perfect black, it does make one wonder about dark matter and whether the mysterious areas out in space that reflect no light could potentially be tangible objects.
It also reminds me of Disaster Area - breifly mentioned in the Hitchhikers Guide. Remember their frontman, who spent a year dead for tax purposes? The band, known not just for being the loudest rock band in the history of history itself, played their instruments remotely from within their orbiting ship - heavily insulated and totally black.
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