New “Metallic Wood” Is as Strong as Titanium But Much Lighter A newly invented material has the strength of titanium, however it's light enough to float on water. Titanium has long been touted as the metal of the future, due to its strength, rust resistance, and amazing lightness. But it's not as strong as it could be, due to random defects in the way its atoms are stacked during the manufacturing process. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and the University of Cambridge have discovered a way to work with the individual atoms in metal to design and build a new material. One that is as strong as titanium but five times lighter, according to their study published in Nature Scientific Reports last month. The team, headed by James Pikul from Penn Engineering, have developed a material they are calling "metallic wood." Its porous structure provides a high strength to weight ratio and also mimics more natural properties found in wood. "The reason we call it metallic wood is not just its density, which is about that of wood, but its cellular nature," Pikul says. "Cellular materials are porous; if you look at wood grain, that’s what you’re seeing — parts that are thick and dense and made to hold the structure, and parts that are porous and made to support biological functions, like transport to and from cells." That porosity creates empty space in the "metallic wood," which could be infused with other materials, organic or inorganic. For example, a prosthetic leg made from this material and infused with anode and cathode materials, could also be a battery. more
This sounds like a revolutionary development. If the process can be scaled up to produce far larger quantities at a much less expensive cost, the uses for it are almost endless. Using it to produce aircraft, spacecraft, or any other item that would benefit from being several times lighter without loss of strength applies to darn near everything. Space elevators, anyone? This would have made Arthur C. Clarke very excited. Nice find, OP!
Why not? Threesomes without the potential for jealousy? ;-) A lot of development in other fields to enable anything like that, of course, but a material like this could solve a major problem building human resembling robots. Weight. Should also help with more natural flexibility. Ah, to be a few decades younger!
This is such a marketing department scam. Foamed metal has been around for 100 years. Sounds like they've come up with some sort of an incremental improvement, and put all of the budget into coming up with a catchy name. Closed cell metal foams have been floating in water since the 1950s, according to Google. When you can actually grow metal structures, then you can call it metallic wood. Disappointing.
