Stealth Paint From German Inventor Werner Nickel 193
Gerhardius writes "Werner Nickel sounds like a Disney-style wacky inventor. He moved to the UAE to develop his previous invention: he had bred a worm whose excrement made it possible to grow radishes in the dry desert sand. That project failed so he moved on to the next item on his agenda, naturally a radar absorbing paint. While it certainly is not unique, there is some interesting history behind the development, and a proposed civilian use."
There should be many applications for this (Score:3, Interesting)
Then there is beamed power applications???
Perhaps this might lead to a method of shielding astronauts on their way to Mars? If it can deflect/scatter radar, can it be made to protect the Hubble?
There are literally thousands of applications where some shielding would be preferred to the current methods, especially in Military applications. I think that if he keeps it up, he might well help us discover how to shield from all manner of things. Shielding in Nuclear power plants is an issue that needs to be tackled better.
Imagine that if it can deal with radar, perhaps there is a way that this can lead to better coatings for fiber optic cables? 30Gbps not good enough for you? How would 100 Gbps with FTTH sound? It's all in how you deal with shielding.
Anything that is as thin as paint and does the job can lead to major improvements in many other things. I hope something really good comes of this and not just some Patriot Missle avoidance tactic.
Re:Uses (Score:3, Interesting)
also there are simple devices that can make cellphones useless by interfering with their broadcast frequency (cellphone jammers) but i would think that aluminum foil backed wallpaper would be cheaper long term than a jammer, the advantage of a jammer is that it can be disabled from when the credits roll until the film starts...
i think the main reason not to jam/build a cheap aluminum based Faraday cage is simple. it's cheaper not to, and people can't sue you for missing a phone call that was a life or death situation (eg: a doctor who was on call trying to catch the latest film, getting called in for a medical emergency)
a little far fetched, but even doctors like movies. if their cellphone doesn't work at the movies, they might not go there...
Re:There should be many applications for this (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, you're 100% wrong, because there is the issue of contamination of the reactor containment vessel. When the plant is decommissioned this material will have to be disposed of somehow. If you can increase SAR of the material to the point where radiation penetrates to a lesser distance, then you don't need as thick a shield (1) which potentially reduces costs through reducing material use and the mass of the total structure (2) and it reduces the mass of the total waste at the time of decommissioning or refreshing of the containment vessel (3).
The cooling system is contaminated as well, and corrosion in the system results in radioactive contamination. So there are numerous places in which we could use new types of shielding.
Not new, not even of this century (Score:5, Interesting)
The japanese have been painting RAP on their skyscrapers for decades now to lessen FM and TV ghosting.