Boeing develops has invented the lightest metal ever, called microlattice - it's 99.99 per air

[editor]

Microlattice is the lightest metal ever made. At 99.99% air, it's light enough to balance on top of a dandelion, while its structure makes it strong. Strength and record breaking lightness make it a potential metal for future planes and vehicles. Learn more about Boeing Innovations atBoeing: Innovation

 

[Cid]

Er... Surely not 'world's lightest metal', more 'worlds lightest metal-based structure' (and even then for a given strength to weight ratio and set of material characteristics).

 

[8ball]

"Well, this shit is pretty much fuck all practical use - let's give it to Marketing..."

 

[Pickman's model]

Er... Surely not 'world's lightest metal', more 'worlds lightest metal-based structure' (and even then for a given strength to weight ratio and set of material characteristics).

pedantry alive and well this post ^^ qualifies you for the much-coveted überpedant status

 

[Supine]

Ive been searching for a metallic structure which can be balanced on a dandelion for years. Great news!

Will be interesting to see where it gets utilised.

 

[trabuquera]

...notice they're not giving away ANY CLUES AT ALL as to what metal exactly the remaining 00.01% is made of, either. Maybe they cheated and it's woven from dandelion fluff and then micro-pico-nanosprayed to look all metallic?

 

[Apathy]

early days but i can imagine a metal as light as that being used for space, Mars missions etc concidering it says on the NASA site that it costs $10,000 to put a pound of payload into Earth orbit.

genuine question tho, in an enviroment with lesser gravity would the strength be effected? I think the metal would be slightly heavier on somewhere like Mars or the Moon but would that also mean its more robust/stronger, or does the fact that everything else in that same enviroment also being effected by the same gravitational force cancel out any advantage of being stronger anyway?

 

[classicdish]

The lightest metal is lithium but that isn't very useful as it combusts on contact with oxygen and is very soft.

The lightest metal alloys are ...(after brief google)... magnesium with a bit of eg aluminium and are used for stuff like high-end camera frames, tough laptops and some vehicle chassis or engine blocks - some bike frames even.