Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black - io9 Comments

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Garro — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:45:18 PST

Damn, you can't even see the edges. Here come the Vindicare cosplay badassery.

Garro

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

leMel — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:52:00 PST

Hotblack's ship was black with a black interior. Looking at it was difficult because it was so dark that your eyes kind of slid past it.

leMel

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

JennaW — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:21:27 PST

@CSX321: That was my first thought. In the radio play, doesn't Ford burble over HotBlack's ship and how utterly, completely *black* it is? This is before they end up on the planet with the eternally delayed flight, not to mention the Crisis Inducer.

Love alterna-Hitchhiker.

JennaW

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

TonyTriple — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:39:58 PST

...darker than a steer's tuchus on a moonless prarie night...

There was nooooo bottom...

TonyTriple

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Whitt — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:55:03 PST

Pratchett wrote about 'Infrablack' if I remember correctly...
Be nice to get some of this as paint for my new 'hangover room'.

Whitt

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

arditty — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:34:51 PST

@arditty: Dang it, I need to refresh my page more often.

arditty

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

arditty — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:34:10 PST

I think that is just a thick specimen, and the view is slightly angled.

arditty

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Kevin Kelly — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:32:14 PST

@Eac_O_System: I think it's a disc of material, like the thickness of a hockey puck. Don Rickles would love it.

Kevin Kelly

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Eac_o_System — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:20:38 PST

"Old black" has some kind of scar through it's bottom right ... is that just an element of the color I never noticed before, or are these scientists just trying to hoax us, again?!?

Eac_o_System

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Mister Adequate — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:48:23 PST

I'll be satisfied when they invent something with negative reflectivity.

Mister Adequate

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

ThisMessIAmIn — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:25:41 PST

Spinal Tap would be proud.

ThisMessIAmIn

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

TonyTriple — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:05:22 PST

..so it looks like my high school yearbook photo.

TonyTriple

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

braak — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:56:53 PST

@mgoldfarb: Well, we've never made clothes that were actually black. If we used 0.0 to measure whether or not a coat was black, then we wouldn't ever wear anything that was called black.

braak

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

CSX321 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:49:59 PST

You're thinking of Hotblack Desiato of the band Disaster Area. There were some cool colors in Hitchhiker's Guide, though: ultraviolent, infradead, gangreen. And, of course, there's the Hooloovo, a super-intelligent shade of the color blue.

CSX321

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

JayP71 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:47:03 PST

Hmmm, hope they figure out how to make car paint with this.

JayP71

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

wishnevsky — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:32:23 PST

I didnt look it up, but wasn't Ultra Black in one of the Hitchhikers Guide books? A band name? With the dead lead guitarist? at the Restaurant At the End of the Universe?

wishnevsky

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

zwaloo — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:04:16 PST

Came to post the Gene Wolfe comment but got beat. Added bonus, though: my user pic is Severian in his fuligan cloak. The executioners wear it because blood doesn't show on it.

zwaloo

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

GenXCub — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:56:10 PST

none more black.

GenXCub

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

goldfarb — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:50:24 PST

er...
"It's also 30 times darker than the standard we currently use to measure what counts as "black."
shouldn't we be using a reflectivity value of 0.0 percent to measure what counts as black?
what have we been using all this time to compare things to? "almost black"?

goldfarb

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:44:24 PST

My boss is 30 times blacker than black. . . .

EncephelanetRepairHelperGuy

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

aspiringexpatriate — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:27:56 PST

@notquiteunderground: They should make those out of old black and the the text will be "I'll wear black until they come out with something" in grey and then "darker than black" in new black.

aspiringexpatriate

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

JoeyTheHobo — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:15:44 PST

@SuperUnison: Ba-Dum-Bum-Psh.

JoeyTheHobo

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

SuperUnison — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:01:43 PST

So I guess it gets pulled over 30 times as often?

SuperUnison

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

jeffedsell — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:00:04 PST

"It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black."

jeffedsell

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

cmg — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:51:52 PST

does one have to be super-goth to waer this?

cmg

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

schmid4brains — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:51:50 PST

@ Deathbytheremin: no. BLACKblack is the new black. not just "black" but REALLY black. maybe "true black"? i do like the fuligin idea... but how many scientists actually read science FICTION? that's a survey i'd like to see. what are we talking about again?

schmid4brains

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

92BuickLeSabre — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:47:29 PST

"Awwwwwww . . .

I'm black y'all, and I'm black y'all, and I'm blacker than black, and I'm black y'all.

I'm blickedy black blacker than black, black I'm blacker than black, yo! Because I'm black and I'm BACK!

Yo, I'm black and I'm black, y'all, and I'm blacker than black and I'm black y'all. I'm black black black black black black black black black and I'm black, and I'm black because I'm BACK!"

92BuickLeSabre

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Lotusmonger — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:44:13 PST

i could use this stuff on my bedroom walls to make it even more difficult to get up in the morning.

Or worse, who needs waterboarding if you just make a prison out of this stuff and never turn on any lights, and make the guards completely silent with soft clothes and shoes while outfitting them with nightvision (that is if it would work in there)

Actually, I wonder what kind of room would use this and also LitrCon, which is the concrete that allows light in.

Anyways, the USAF now can make their black projects even blacker.

Lotusmonger

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

DeathbyTheremin — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:36:59 PST

So, black is the new black.

DeathbyTheremin

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

braak — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:34:54 PST

@mjdurall: YES! I was just thinking that.

braak

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

notquiteunderground — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:31:22 PST

For some reason all I can think of are the t-shirts that say "I wear black until they make something darker." Never thought I'd see the day.

notquiteunderground

Ultradark Material Is Thirty Times Blacker Than Black

Whitworthian — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:30:25 PST

It would be incredible if they called it "fuligin", the color from Gene Wolfe's New Sun novels that's darker than black.

Whitworthian