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[RedKing]

Real simple stuff guys:

If everything you're saying is true about the crap you know, then they should never let a town hall meeting happen where you work. No one should be there and using it for political points is bullshit.

The problem is the citizen/non citizen distinction. Nobody, period. There ya go.

The problem with your argument is that you let ANYONE in: citizen/noncitizen, everybody out.

Oh, absolutely agree. Having a town hall in a secured location is just stump-dumb. $10 says part of the allure to get donors in the door (make no mistake, this isn't a "town hall" it's a fundraiser) is the whole "Hey, we'll get you into a cool supder-duper top secret place so you can brag to all your asshole friends".

And you're right, technically it doesn't matter if they're citizen or not. No clearance, you need to be escorted at all times *and* you need a business reason to be there. Which a town hall isn't. My guess is that a Perry staffer (or many of them) wasn't familiar with security protocol and just fell back on a xenophobic justification when questioned. They did later issue a clarification that non-citizens could attend but must be escorted. Then again, this was New Hampshire. Who the hell were they keeping out, curious Canadians?

[Truean]

Who the hell were they keeping out, curious Canadians?

Basically, they like us gays, so they are Perry's natural enemies. Much like beavers and ... whatever the hell eats beavers. Also loons I guess, they're big on those geese up there. I think it's their national bird.

Honestly though, Canadians mostly like us, so no one is really worried about them, or no same person should be. Though many of them wonder what on earth we're doing and who can blame them? 

It's all part of us Americans pretending we're better than everyone else, who apparently are not taught the super secret citizenship handshake to enter the clubhouse.

[Luke_Prowler]

So there's this lightweight material stuff....

Pardon me, but I'm always the pragmatist looking for practical application. I see "lightweight material" and my mind just buzzes all over the place more than usual. They list some applications in the article, but really what I was wondering was:

a.) How expensive are things like these to produce?
b.) Can you "compress" or otherwise combine multiple lightweight materials into incredibly strong ones? (Mention was made of aerospace structural components).
c.) Can this thing become commonplace (I imagine costs are a prohibitive factor right now to say the least)?

Basically, it seems there are always these great, "look at what science can do," articles. There also seems to be a massive lag between research and practical applications if there ever are any. I read Popular Mechanics for years; I'm still waiting for a flying car they've been saying will happen for decades now really.

Do people think this is more "head in the clouds" technology" or is this something that might be applied?  Same question for other technologies, I guess.

Well the obvious application is lighter airplanes, cars, and spaceships, which will allow them to get farther with less fuel.

[Rose]

Actually, from what I've seen, the stuff is like a super-sponge, and has really good spring ability, which means it could find use in anywhere we use foam rubber right now.

[sluissa]

What piqued my interest about the lattice stuff was the potential for use in batteries. That is an absolutely incredible amount of surface area for the size. If you could make a lattice like that out of an efficient anode/cathode material then you have a battery that potentially works very efficiently.

I admit I could be wrong though, my understanding of how batteries work is limited. I just know that surface area is a big determinate of how they work.

[RedKing]

Surface area is also important in heat dispersal. You could build the mother of all heat sinks out of this.
If I'm thinking right, you could also make very tiny, very powerful electromagnets.
And I would think this would have big applications in stealth technology. Radar is going to have a hell of a time with an aircraft that's 99% not there.

The question is: how expensive and time-consuming is the fabrication process? If you can't mass produce it easily, it becomes difficult to make it economically viable as a material.

[MonkeyHead]

So much else is important if stuff is to be made out of this - like is there creep, ductility under tension, work hardening, plastic flow, and the eventual failue mechanism. Strength to weight (or even volume) ratio as a bulk material is also important. If 1 cm^3 is strong, thats kinda cool, but if a 1cm^2 CSA rod of length 1m is floppy its not got much use as a structural component. Consider glass - small bits of glass are hella strong, but not so great for making aircraft wings once you cast big sheets out of it.

[Bauglir]

This stuff sounds awesome, although I have to admit I'm kind of confused as to its relevance. Still, the next step is obviously to build a zeppelin out of it.

[G-Flex]

This stuff sounds awesome, although I have to admit I'm kind of confused as to its relevance. Still, the next step is obviously to build a zeppelin out of it.

Why are people so confused? Scientists have created a substance with an extremely interesting value for a really basic and fundamental intrinsic property (density). How is making an extremely light material not interesting in itself? Understanding always comes before practical application, and the fact that we can't see that practical application shouldn't be any surprise, since we aren't scientists or engineers (presumably) and haven't spent any time trying to find ones.

I totally wish we could build better airships, though. Unfortunately, the amount of buoyancy you can get out of an airship envelope has a pretty strict upper limit, and that's terrible.

[kaijyuu]

I'm confused at them calling it "lighter than air." If it were, it'd float. It's obviously not doing that.

Maybe they mean lighter than air were it in a vacuum without air filling all the in-between space? If so, that's kinda a silly distinction; I'd bet a lot of things would be.

[Bauglir]

I'm wondering why it is relevant to this thread. The material itself is awesome, it just seems kind of random to talk about.

[Nadaka]

It really isn't relevant to this thread.

I'm confused at them calling it "lighter than air." If it were, it'd float. It's obviously not doing that.

Maybe they mean lighter than air were it in a vacuum without air filling all the in-between space? If so, that's kinda a silly distinction; I'd bet a lot of things would be.

It is a porous solid. The holes are filled with air. Fill those holes with vacuum, hydrogen or helium and it will float. And it can do so while retaining rigid volumetric structural integrity, unlike a balloon.

[Andir]

It really isn't relevant to this thread.

True, but I think it's cool to interject these things from time to time (I'm always fascinated by new stuff.  This type of thing, graphene, etc.)

Maybe we don't need to have a full discussion about it (I read/conversed about this yesterday on Slashdot in an appropriate "thread")  but "Hey, check this out!" seems to be appropriate.

[kaijyuu]

Fill those holes with vacuum, hydrogen or helium and it will float. And it can do so while retaining rigid volumetric structural integrity, unlike a balloon.

If it can retain form while having a vacuum inside and be lighter than air...

*has images of zepplins and other floating devices being made out of this stuff*

Let's do it.

[ECrownofFire]

I wonder how much effective lift the stuff has when it's vacuumed...