
New Super-Black, Light-Absorbing Material Looks Like a Hole in Reality - sethbannon
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/blackest-is-the-new-black-scientists-have-developed-a-material-so-dark-that-you-cant-see-it-9602504.html
======
gus_massa
This story appeared a few times during the last days with different linkbait
titles, like "Blackest: Scientists develop a material so dark that can't be
seen"

This article is very interesting. This is the first article I saw that has a
photograph of the new material, and not only some stock photos of black
objects.

(I'm not ironic. I rally wanted to see a photo of this. Perhaps a spectrogram
and some technical descriptions have more scientific information, but
nevertheless I wanted to see it with "my" eyes.)

------
ricardobeat
Back in 2009:
[http://www.wired.com/2009/03/ultrablack/](http://www.wired.com/2009/03/ultrablack/)

2008: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/15/us-nano-black-
idUS...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/15/us-nano-black-
idUSN1555030620080115)

2007:
[http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/March/01030701.a...](http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/March/01030701.asp)

2003:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20030219071652/http://www.ananov...](https://web.archive.org/web/20030219071652/http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_747664.html?menu=news)

Of course the goalpost is moving, but we keep 'reinventing' this stuff...

~~~
devindotcom
Yeah, we covered this even though it's an old type of material. The news is
actually an improved manufacturing technique.

------
dm2
What does the hole in the top image represent? Is that just a random hole in
the material?

Would it be possible to make the "opposite" of this material? Something that
reflects at near perfect efficiency? Would that just be a normal mirror?

~~~
alok-g
Assuming you are referring to this image:
[http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9603983.ece/alt...](http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9603983.ece/alternates/w460/newblack.jpg)

What looks like a hole in the metal foil is the portion of the metal foil with
the said material applied on it. It looks like a hole in spite of the metal
foil having ridges and valleys as seen on the sides where the material is not
applied.

~~~
dm2
No, the URL was changed after I posted that comment.

This is the image I was referring to: [http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/nas...](http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/nasa-carbon-nanotubes-super-black.jpg)

I assume it was just there to show how small carbon-nanotube fibers are.

From this page: [http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-
light-a...](http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-
absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/)

------
dang
A dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8030459](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8030459).

(Before edit:

Url changed from [http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-
light-a...](http://singularityhub.com/2014/07/19/new-super-black-light-
absorbing-material-looks-like-a-hole-in-reality/), which points to this.)

