World's Lightest Solid!

Aerogels are the world's lightest (least dense) solids. They are also excellent thermal insulators and have been used in numerous Mars missions and the Stardust comet particle-return mission. The focus of this video is silica aerogels, though graphene aerogels are now technically the lightest.

At one point Dr. Steven Jones literally held the Guinness World Record for making the lightest aerogel and therefore lightest solid. If you're interested in learning more about aerogels, let me know in the comments as there is a potential trilogy in the works...

Thanks to Dr. Steven Jones and Dr. Mihail Petkov at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Terrance Shepherd, Penward Rhyme and everyone who provided feedback on an early draft of this video.

Filming by Raquel Nuno
Animations by Maria Raykova
Drawings by Mariel Solsberg

[Linuxdirk]

10:40 I totally did not expect THAT sound.

[leika]

"99.8% Air"
So the company producing this is associated with Lays, huh?

[rizzgod-wjty]

Aerogel: iam 99.8% air but why do i hear boss music playing

*Lays: are you challenging me?*

[seeableTV]

I remember reading about this in USA Today about 30 years ago. They had a picture of an Aerogel cube in a person's hand, and a candle flame in the background. They said that Aerogel worked so well, that if a room was fully insulated with the substance, the candle flame would be enough to heat the room. I thought that was so intriguing. And yet, I never really heard much about it again. I'm guessing it's both very expensive and very fragile to be practical in mass insulation production.

[matthewmcclain]

10:38 that second piece dropping, the sound blew my mind more than anything else

[boodabear]

Air: Who are you?

Aerogel: *I’m you but stronger.*

[TommoCarroll]

That aerogel is like a constant ‘Oddly Satisfying’ moment

[kisitudeogratius]

As a thermal engineer, I appreciate this great scientific innovation. Looking forward to sharing this great video with my thermal group at Villanova University, USA!

[aseemgidwani]

My boy figuring out the YouTube algorithm... you deserve it

[thedankest]

“This object is 99.8% air”

Lays: finally, a worthy opponent, our battle will be legendary

[YoAndyZou]

The fact that they did this in 1931 is actually what blows my mind; it reframes what I think of scientific progress and capability back then

[dabolife]

It is amazing how we learn great things here than we did in school.

[wolfsxcl]

So you are basically holding a piece of the sky

[wombatperson]

I have never wanted to touch something more in my life.

Edit: this comment has been on this video for two years and, to this day, I get notifications of people liking it in my inbox. It wasn’t even supposed to be a joke! I was but a simple fool writing the first thing I thought. It haunts me.

[신가은-my]

It's great to know about aerogels that have really great and interesting properties. Watching the video about the various uses and roles of the aerogel, I found it very attractive. I'm also looking forward to watching the aerogel develop further. Not only do we hope for more innovation and development in the future, but we also look forward to seeing aerogels being used in new areas.

[Adrianirl]

Aerogel - I’m the closest to air possible
Lays - Observe

[sage-]

love how chocolate takes mad long to melt under a fire but melts in 5 seconds in my hand

[meidachnate]

The world's *second* lightest solid is my wallet.

Edit: Yo, I left for a year and came back to look at this thread. And nope. I am not even gonna ask.

[Discoverling]

The sound at 10:40 was a strnage mix of metallic and glass-like at the same time. Interesting.

[Henrix]

10:40 you really should have recorded more how it sounds like, that metallic/glass like sound was really unexpected