aerogel, my new favorite thing

A brick supported by a wisp of aerogelI’m just about running out of awe lately. It’s like awesome things are showering down from the sky, perhaps in an attempt to counteract all the craptacular things that we are usually made aware of.

So you can imagine that I started reading this article about the wonders of aerogel with a depleted awe supply. Yeah, yeah, it’s really light. Great, it was developed by NASA. Sure, it’ll have all sorts of space applications. Fine, it was used as shoe insulation by a mountain climber whose only trouble was that her feet got too hot.

What was that last thing again? Really? And 6mm of it protects against a dynamite blast? Huh. And photos of it look really spooky, like there’s nothing really there. Well, now.

So now I want to get some. You know, just to have. I’m sure I could think of something to do with it…

2 thoughts on “aerogel, my new favorite thing

  1. Thought you might like to know…Our company, PolarWrap, uses aerogel in our line of Toasty Feet insoles. We supplied those insoles for the Everest climb.

    You can read more about aerogel and its use in our products at http://www.toastyfeet.com.

  2. Thanks for the info, Tonia. Foot insulation isn’t quite necessary in San Diego, but I keep thinking of those in terms of the Mars Society Convention next week. I wonder if the FMARS crews know about them…

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