New Insulating Fibre

[GordMay]

New Fibre, inspired by polar bears, traps heat as well as down:

A new fibre, that mimics the Polar Bears’ porous hairs, is about one-fifth the thickness of a down coat/comforter, but similarly warm, researchers report [1] in the Dec. 22 “Science”.

Like polar bear hair, the fibre’s core is filled with thousands of pores — tiny pockets of air that help prevent heat loss — and surrounded by a flexible, waterproof sheath. But unlike hair, which is made of keratin, the core is built from synthetic aerogel.

To create a more robust aerogel, materials scientists spun, and froze, a thread of aerogel, made from chitosan, a polymer found in the exoskeletons of shellfish.
Freeze-drying the string, and coating it in a pliable plastic, called thermoplastic polyurethane, added strength.
The resulting fiber can hold up to 500 grams, about the weight of three billiard balls. And, it can be knit, dyed and washed.

[1] “Biomimetic, knittable aerogel fiber for thermal insulation textile” ~ by Mingrui Wu et al
➥ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj8013

[berniecurry]

Another colossal waste of intellectual and financial resources in creating a product not needed and which will become a future pollutant adding unnecessary non-biodegradable substances to the earth's cesspool we have to sail in.

Humans have solved the problem of keeping warm a very long time ago. The scientific and manufacturing energy would be better directed towards solving real world problems threatening humanity, not adding to it.

[kayakerChuck]

Cool!

I'm one of those weirdos who teach people how to sleep in snowbanks & such.