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Scientists at Purdue and Norfolk State University have created a metamaterial that's the blackest-black color ever—a "perfectly black" material, they say.
Turns out that, while the point of black is that is absorbs all light, most "ordinary black objects always reflect a little light." Using silver wire and aluminum oxide, the scientific team built a roughened product that, instead of reflecting light, absorbed all but less than 1% of near-infrared radiation—officially making this stuff the blackest black ever invented.
Too bad we probably won't see this black in stores anytime soon, though. New Scientist says that the primary application of this new material will be in defense—making stealth military stuff invisible to radar detection.
· Radiation-soaking metamaterial puts black in the shade [New Scientist]
· Scientists create incredibly black material [Gawker]
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