Air Force Cadet Invents Bullet Stopping Goo

[RJ]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bus...y-armor-2017-5

"After a little more than a year of research and more than 20 attempts to get the right materials, an Air Force Academy cadet and professor have developed a kind of goo that can be used to enhance existing types of body armor.

As part of a chemistry class project in 2014, Cadet 1st Class Hayley Weir was assigned epoxy, Kevlar, and carbon fiber to use to create a material that could stop a bullet."

Thought this was kinda cool; and would, if effective, save a lot of weight for those who have to go in harm's way.

[alohadoug]

JFCMMOG....

Sorry...touchy subject around here. The Army Research Lab spent about $2m dollars studying Non-Newtonian fluids in the EARLY 1980s! Works create on cut/stab, works ok on 9mm (147gr only) and 45 (230 gr). Faster 9mm and 45 created backface deflection deep enough to be fatal. Rifle rounds (and arrows - cause "bows and arrows") were not particularly effected by the substance.

The Polish Army just went through this last year. Some college over there said the same thing and was soundly and immediately rejected.

I can say that while the Army is researching a variety of ways to lighten body armor while maintaining the same level of protection, the phrase "non-Newtonian fluids" will get you laughed out of the room and dismissed as an amateur that doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

Thank you
Doug

[Hambo]

Doug, never say never if there's funding and O6 in it for somebody.

[trailrunner]

I worked in an Army research lab (but not ARL) for almost a decade, and have worked in military R&D my entire career.

Almost anything you read in the popular news about the latest breakthrough is wrong, very immature, or impractical in the real world. Every month I'd get a well-meaning email from a friend who had read the latest development in my field from a university that had been demonstrated in a lab on a small scale under ideal conditions, but with just a little more work and hand waving, could be expanded to work on a tank for only pennies.

[GuanoLoco]

I worked in an Army research lab (but not ARL) for almost a decade, and have worked in military R&D my entire career.

Almost anything you read in the popular news about the latest breakthrough is wrong, very immature, or impractical in the real world. Every month I'd get a well-meaning email from a friend who had read the latest development in my field from a university that had been demonstrated in a lab on a small scale under ideal conditions, but with just a little more work and hand waving, could be expanded to work on a tank for only pennies.

Isn't it interesting when you read news about anything that you actually have firsthand knowledge about? The news is so consistently in complete and in accurate it is stunning.

[RJ]

Thanks to Doug, I read a bit more about non-Newtonian fluids. Pretty interesting stuff, even if the news story I quoted turns out to be useless.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid

[busdriver]

the phrase "non-Newtonian fluids" will get you laughed out of the room and dismissed as an amateur

Keep in mind this was an undergrad's project. USAFA doesn't have a graduate program, and doesn't have undergrads acting as work proxies for professors.

[JAD]

Every morning Google helpfully goes out and finds six news articles about technologies that finally render my primary technology obsolete.

Any minute now.

[LOKNLOD]

Isn't it interesting when you read news about anything that you actually have firsthand knowledge about? The news is so consistently in complete and in accurate it is stunning.

I was griping to my wife about this, when I was being skeptical of some "alternative medicine" thing she saw.

When I see news about things I'm knowledgeable on, it's almost universally wrong or misleading. Others, with expertise in other fields, usually say the same about their own knowledge areas. Why, then, should I accept anything the news tells me at face value?

[DMF13]

. . . skeptical of some "alternative medicine" thing . . .

Do you know what they call "alternative medicine" that actually works? Medicine.