Super-floater: One-Pound Boat That Could Float 1,000 Pounds

Combining the secrets that enable water striders to walk on water and give wood its lightness and great strength has yielded an amazing new material so buoyant that, in everyday terms, a boat made from 1 pound of the substance could carry five kitchen refrigerators, about 1,000 pounds.

One of the lightest solid substances in the world, which is also sustainable, it was among the topics of a symposium in San Diego March 25 at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The symposium focused on an emerging field called biomimetics, in which scientists literally take inspiration from Mother Nature, probing and adapting biological systems in plants and animals for use in medicine, industry and other fields.

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