Comments on: AirGlass: Today’s little bit of wow

By: Random stuff I found this week (cos I’m too lazy to post everything in separate posts) « Geekofriendly

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:34:04 +0000

[...] [Man-made] AirGlass: Today’s little bit of wow [...]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:30:43 +0000

“You… realize that by giving him the formula, we’re altering the future.”

“Why? How do we know he didn’t invent the thing?”

By: Just Me

Just Me — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:02:13 +0000

Forget Aerogel, I want Pyrogel.

By: HAHAHA

HAHAHA — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:00:18 +0000

LOL. I’m with you on this. Aerogel has been around for 30 years.

By: Geekofriendly

Geekofriendly — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:03:50 +0000

I hope aerogel and this airglass product can muster-up the momentum to spread into mainstream production. As another poster noted, knowing the price would help a lot:)

Also, I’d like to know how much embodied energy this product contains, which would be helpful info in determining how it can be implemented into sustainable architecture.

By: uniqueGifts

uniqueGifts — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:41:52 +0000

Maybe this stuff was so hard to invent they didn’t have anytime left to work on their site! Come on cut ‘em a break LOL ;).

By: Jason Sydow, Ph.D.

Jason Sydow, Ph.D. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:29:56 +0000

Aspen Aerogels (http://www.aerogel.com/) is backed by RockPort Capital among others.

This material has been around for decades and is a favorite playground for solid state physicists and chemists due to its exceptionally high surface area to volume ratio.

By: Terry Robinson

Terry Robinson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:28:27 +0000

The largest health risk so far from cut aerogels is mechanical irritation to the eyes or as an inhaled dust. The particle size and brittleness puts it out of range for asbestos-like effects.

By: Clau

Clau — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:54:26 +0000

oaw!!!!
great invention!

By: John

John — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:37:32 +0000

Wow it must have loads of potential! I mean look how much money they’ve invested into that website! A whole 2, possibly 3 dollars?

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:05:03 +0000

How expensive is this stuff?

By: Pete Austin

Pete Austin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:51:57 +0000

Has anyone independently researched the dust particles produced when you cut AirGlass with a band saw or metal drill as suggested?

The AirGlass home page says the “Grain size [is] 10 – 30 nm in diameter”, which could be an indication of dust size. http://www.airglass.se/info.html

This is not so different to Asbestos fibers of e.g “30 – 80 nm [and] Nano particles that are just a few nm in size can present a health hazard”
http://www.soft-imaging.net/en/5085_5227.htm

By: Jimble

Jimble — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:02:56 +0000

It may be that the patent on this stuff has expired already. Aerogel has been around since the 70’s. It’s extremely brittle, but this fellow is saying they’re working on that. I’d expect they’d have to laminate it with a film to be of practicality in structural situations. cool stuff though…

@Mikea: you can buy chunks of this stuff at various places on the internet. Not exactly cheap however, but you can buy smaller sized fragments like the one above for probably $20-30.

By: Ori

Ori — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:02:01 +0000

Apple, please make a MacBook AirGlass!

my comments at http://www.commentino.com/orim

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:47:30 +0000

S: Aye Captain…but if we could make the tanks for the whales out of transparent Aluminum…

K: But Scottie…that doesn’t exist yet.

S: How do we know he’s not the one that invented it?

By: MK (Casey) van Bronkhorst

MK (Casey) van Bronkhorst — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:44:42 +0000

Fantastic looking results. That’ll be a patent to have and hold.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:42:39 +0000

Looks cool but doubt it can go mainstream.. Maybe one day though. Gotta keep hope alive:)

Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:35:36 +0000

That is really cool… has some great potential in a number of fields!

Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com – Create Unique Memories

By: Mikea

Mikea — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:35:08 +0000

Where can I get some?!? Honestly I can think of like two million uses for that little piece of awesome.