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The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgamesEARTHDATE: July 11, 2010
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REAL LIFE NEWS: BULLET-PROOF CUSTARDby HazedIn an otherwise boring news report about a new type of armor that's particularly good at stopping bullets, my eye was caught by the phrase "bullet-proof custard". This reminds me of the old children's joke: What's yellow and dangerous? Shark-infested custard. Clearly if you do have a problem with sharks in your custard, having the custard itself be bullet-proof might be a good idea. So what's this all about? Well, it's a new armor made of kevlar combined with this magic liquid that thickens under pressure. So when it's hit by a bullet, it stiffens up to absorb the force of the bullet strike. The technical term for the way the liquid acts is "shear-thickening", and the scientists from BAE Systems in Bristol, England, described it thusly: "It's very similar to custard in the sense that the molecules lock together when it's struck." This makes sense, as I recall seeing a mad-scientist experiment on TV showing how it's possible to walk across a pool filled with custard. You can read more about the new liquid armor here. And here's the video about walking on custard. It's worth watching to the end of this to see how difficult it is to get out of the custard again! |
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