Tank Tops (emphasis on tank)

[golentan]

A really cool development: Personal, lightweight body armor capable of stopping most personal firearm rounds from non-military hardware.

Wow... Just wow...

http://news.discovery.com/tech/t-shirt-body-armor-tank.html

And lest you think from the date stamp it's an april fools joke, there's been some followup.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2010/04/06/how-to-make-a-bulletproof-t-shirt/

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/armored-t-shirts-contain-boron-carbide-nanowires

[Mando Knight]

If this research holds out in the manner the first article said, it might also provide an in-road into lightweight radiation shielding, allowing for larger nuclear-powered spacecraft...

I doubt it will have the results expected by the article, though. :smallsigh:

[Icewalker]

Quite fantastic. I love that they provide the process as well. This is a really cool development, although it sounds like it's just a small first step towards an eventually functional use, right now it likely is not bulletproof or close to it from the sound of the articles.

The radiation resistance is definitely important though...

[golentan]

Granted it's only in early stages. But the potential for lightweight and flexible BC armor is pretty awesome, you must admit.

One of the articles I perused talked about early tests stopping rounds at up to 1400 M/S, putting all small arms out of the running for penetration.

[Icewalker]

Damn, that's impressive. Is that for a single t-shirt layer of it though, or several layers thick?

[deuxhero]

Seems intresting, but so did DNF and Team Gizka's Restoration patch.

[neoseph7]

Boron has a high rate of capture for neutrons compared to other matierials. That rate is still below 1%. Really far below. A new boron carbide might make rad shielding cheaper, but we already dope steel and concrete with boron for radiation protection.

To make a long story short, because Neutrons are uncharged, they pass through things easily like neutrinos. Because they have a significant mass, an interaction with a neutron can cause nuclear transmutation of elements (fission, amongst other products) or molecular damage (Imagine if the hydrogen atoms in your cells where hit in a collision with something about the same size). Shielding neutrons is very difficult, and is generally done with many feet of the aformentioned steel and concrete. Unlike neutrinos, neutrons have a fairly short lifespan (about 20 min, 12 when you take into account time dilation from travelling so quickly. "Slow" neutrons travel 2200 m/s, and are refered to as "thermal"). So shielding against neutrons is more about keeping people away from this 20 min kill zone and minimizing it with various materials that effectively confound the neutron into taking a much longer path.

[golentan]

Damn, that's impressive. Is that for a single t-shirt layer of it though, or several layers thick?

I believe that's for a T shirt, but I can check in a minute.

Course, just wearing one of those puppies by itself wouldn't do you good regardless: the bullet might not penetrate the loose cloth, but it would carry any slack material with it as it punched through your sternum and lodged in your vitals.

Edit: So... Looks like I was thinking of comparable material tests (lightweight (Manportable) BC armor) a few years ago before they got this process for the flexible cloth result. No clue in the article how thick the armor has to be to do that...

[Jack Squat]

soo...where can I get large quantities of boron?

[Icewalker]

I believe a better question is where can you get the tools to heat cotton to about 2000 degrees F without it burning. :smalltongue:

[Jack Squat]

I just need access to a kiln that I can rig a flow of argon gas through. Argon's easy enough to come by, any welding supply store should have it.

[druid91]

Jack please don't do anything that might cause you to get plasma burns.

[Boo]

Jack please don't do anything that might cause you to get plasma burns.

"Oh these? I was fighting robots in the 22nd century."

[Rutskarn]

You know, it kind of sucks that the only way you get a cool scar in a developed country is through your own incompetence. Doesn't make for much of a story, really.

Still beats getting your limbs hacked off or something.

[Adumbration]

You know, it kind of sucks that the only way you get a cool scar in a developed country is through your own incompetence. Doesn't make for much of a story, really.


Well, there are extreme sports, you know. Then it's not incompetence, just plain stup- I mean daring. :smallwink: