flubber blue

October 7, 2007 5:17 PM

Reporter whacks man with shovel [video]. d30 (dee-three-oh) is a specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules. They flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb the impact energy.
posted by nickyskye (47 comments total)

d30
posted by nickyskye at 5:19 PM on October 7, 2007

This is tagged with sportsprotection, but what kind of use could this stuff have in body armor? How hard of a whack can it really take?
posted by R_Nebblesworth at 5:22 PM on October 7, 2007

My favorite bit is when the reporter checks to make sure the kneepad didn't slip down, because when they tried whacking the reporter in the knee earlier, it had.
posted by smackfu at 5:22 PM on October 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

I would have enjoyed this more if someone had whacked a reporter, any reporter really, with a shovel. Hard.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:23 PM on October 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

intelligent molecules

I don't know if I'd go that far. They play a decent game of Go or Chess, and they can keep up with what's current on the NYTimes booklist - but they go for the ironic one-lines way too often, have terrible taste in music, and are entirely aswim in any technical conversation. Not well rounded at all, which I consider an important part of being an intelligent civilizee.
posted by freebird at 5:23 PM on October 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

d3o technology is a specially engineered material with intelligent molecules that flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb impact energy.

Sounds to me like it might be a high-tech version of our friend Oobleck.
posted by Tube at 5:25 PM on October 7, 2007

I was really hoping this would turn out to be a video of people hoaxing a reporter, convincing him that this stuff worked, then having the guy collapse on the ground when he got hit.
posted by davejay at 5:27 PM on October 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Science is great. Also I laughed at the way the reported ended the interview: “Thank you for joining us. Whack you on the head one more time?” Could be a tagline for MetaFilter.
posted by tepidmonkey at 5:27 PM on October 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's pretty cool. Actually I read a Tom Swift book as a kid with a similar idea, a material that would get harder as pressure increased.

I wonder if it responds to pressure or to velocity? Velocity seems simpler.
posted by delmoi at 5:28 PM on October 7, 2007

d30 (dee-three-oh) Custard (cuh-star-duh) is a specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:28 PM on October 7, 2007 [7 favorites]

what kind of use could this stuff have in body armor? How hard of a whack can it really take?

If you look on the d30 site under "product applications" it has some pretty spiffy looking body armor using this orange oobleck and examples of sports under the heading "development athletes".
posted by nickyskye at 5:29 PM on October 7, 2007

Why isn't everything made out of d30 aerogel? This is the 21st century, isn't it?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:35 PM on October 7, 2007

Nikon's version of this material is much better. Less marketing, more engineering. Black instead of shiny orange.
posted by b1tr0t at 5:49 PM on October 7, 2007

Custard (cuh-star-duh) is a specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules

Not to mention delicious
posted by Pollomacho at 5:51 PM on October 7, 2007

If custard's so smart, why is it always getting eaten?

Fucking know-it-all custard.
No, I'm not bitter.
posted by Plutor at 6:08 PM on October 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

Nikon's version

Link?
posted by nickyskye at 6:13 PM on October 7, 2007

This is the coolest thing I've seen in weeks.
posted by nola at 6:21 PM on October 7, 2007

This is very cool. Thanks.

I'd love to know what the drawbacks are. (I'm guessing cost is probably one at this point.)
posted by veggieboy at 6:28 PM on October 7, 2007

Am I being techno-snarky here to mention things like Silly Putty and even cornstarch goo which behave in a very similar fashion?

I'll admit, perhaps this stuff is somehow better engineered for body armor or gets 'harder' (although the bit chipping off doesn't bode well for that theory).
posted by abulafa at 6:40 PM on October 7, 2007

Do I miss something or isn't this just a dilatant fluid?
Every process engineer learns about this in his first semester when they talk about visocity.
BTW, if you have understood the concepts then you know why the ketchup in the bottle, a Bingham fluid, either does not come out or comes out all at once!
posted by yoyo_nyc at 6:50 PM on October 7, 2007

Not intelligent - unstable molecules.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 6:53 PM on October 7, 2007

Silly Putty and hammer go boom! (in super slo-mo), and what happens when you drop a 50 lb. ball of it off a building onto concrete [via Boing Boing, but that's not what it does]. More about the stuff at Wikipedia.
posted by cenoxo at 6:56 PM on October 7, 2007

Silly putty runs when it's not being impacted and and corn starch goop has to be kept wet or it dries up, neither would hold up in a jacket, knee pads, hat. d30 is a type of dilatant fluid but it can be made into sheets, that are breathable, which hold their form.
posted by nickyskye at 7:06 PM on October 7, 2007

yoyo_nyc. I think you might be missing something which may be significant. This seems to be the only commercial application mentioned in the "Body armor" section of the wikipedia article you linked.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 7:19 PM on October 7, 2007

When I was in middle school, I got the crap beat out of me almost everday at school. That material would have came in handy then.
posted by disgruntled at 7:31 PM on October 7, 2007

Well, SP's not a viable substitute, but it demonstrates a similar effect that you can do at home, kids. Just don't wrap your head in it first.

Interesting how d30 uses a video of ski racers (crashing at high speed), snowboarders, and bikers, interspersed with a few people hitting a brick wall (at very slow speed). While it may help absorb the crushing effects of direct impacts, all that high speed momentum still has to go somewhere. How will d30 reduce twisting joint injuries to necks, arms, hands, legs, feet, and backs?

Their Development Athletes recruiting page states:

The d3o development athlete team is where ground breaking products are born and tested.

They might want to rephrase that. In some "sports", intelligent molecules may be most needed inside the human skull.
posted by cenoxo at 8:07 PM on October 7, 2007

d30
posted by lumensimus at 8:27 PM on October 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

I saw "d30" and "whacks man with shovel" and thought for a moment that this was about the latest D&D release.

Still, cool.
posted by salishsea at 8:29 PM on October 7, 2007

Why am I filled with the urge to deliver pizzas?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:32 PM on October 7, 2007 [5 favorites]

I didn't see anyone link to the actual site where you can get the hats yet, so here.

I have been desperately wanting one of these for about a year now, though to be honest, I didn't expect them to be able to do what was shown in the linked video.

Now I just want one even worse.

I believe this has been discussed on the green as well.
posted by quin at 8:44 PM on October 7, 2007

Is it because you are an armorgel clad Deliverator, ROU_X?
posted by quin at 8:45 PM on October 7, 2007

The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category. He's got esprit up to here. Right now he is preparing to carry out his third mission of the night. His uniform is black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. A bullet will bounce off its arachno-fiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest. Where his body has bony extremities, the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:40 PM on October 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

This sounds like something Troy Hurtubise (1, 2, 3) would've thought up...
posted by greatgefilte at 10:27 PM on October 7, 2007

WANT!

This would make great sparring gear.
posted by tkchrist at 10:45 PM on October 7, 2007

It isn't the strong outer material of a bike helmet that protects your head, so much as the compressable styrofoam type stuff inside.

If this stuff really gets as rigid as they say, then I'll bet those shovel hits really hurt.
posted by eye of newt at 11:08 PM on October 7, 2007

We've gone over this before.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:06 AM on October 8, 2007

This is tagged with sportsprotection, but what kind of use could this stuff have in body armor? How hard of a whack can it really take?

Bullet impacts are generally not like hammer impacts - they're more like icepick impacts, particularly in this modern day of steel core bullets.

What you would ideally want in an armored proof vest based on this stuff is something to first blunt the bullet, *THEN* something like d30 to help distribute the force, then some form of backplate, and then some padding. Without knowing anything else about this substance other than the video, my guess would be that an effective armor system utilizing it would consist of a tungsten-alloy (density first and foremost) frontplate, d30 layer, titanium backplate, then padding.

Obviously the toxicity of the stuff when in the presence of a wound site (if something somehow got through all that) is a concern, but they did let the reporter handle it directly.
posted by Ryvar at 12:13 AM on October 8, 2007

My other (much bigger) question would be the speed of response on the molecular 'locking' mechanism of d30 - bullet impacts involve speeds two orders of magnitude faster than anything you're going to encounter in sports or hitting people with shovels. Does d30's locking mechanism occur sufficiently quickly to function under those conditions? Does it retain the variable degrees of locking that make it such an excellent impact absorber/force distributor under those conditions?

If yes to both, then sandwiching this stuff between a high-density rigid plate and a high-strength/low-weight rigid plate is going to be about the best possible ballistics vest until the next year's round of material science breakthroughs.
posted by Ryvar at 12:25 AM on October 8, 2007

To fashions for the New World Order!
Seems perfect for those occasions when you may find yourself facing a riot squad. I bet a taser won't go through it, either. You know what they say: "Necessity is the mother of invention"!
posted by Goofyy at 2:59 AM on October 8, 2007

('To' = 'New'. WTF happened?)
posted by Goofyy at 3:00 AM on October 8, 2007

R_Nebblesworth writes "but what kind of use could this stuff have in body armor?"

It certainly could lessen the damage done by some derage policeman charging bystanders , or the damage done to the policeman by an agry mob. More then "what kind of use" I am thinking about "how could everybody have it and not just the usual few" , and expecially "why is some thinking about wacking others" to begin with ?
posted by elpapacito at 3:40 AM on October 8, 2007

Last night I read 'Ultimate Iron Man' by Orson Scott Card. This morning I read about D3O. It's blue in Iron Man and orange in real life, but pretty much the same thing. Nice to see science fiction get a one-day turn-around.
posted by eccnineten at 6:39 AM on October 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

To fashions for the New World Order!

A sardonic toast.
posted by nickyskye at 8:14 AM on October 8, 2007

I wonder what its weight is like?

You could do some very interesting things with automotive & vehicle applications.

Not to mention putting it in motorcycle leathers.
posted by Relay at 11:28 AM on October 8, 2007

This would make great sparring gear.

Seamless protective sleeves, or just the typical layered pads and cups? If it's possible for a human to flex his limbs quickly enough to "trigger" the material, then sleeves would prove more than a little troublesome during a bout.
posted by PsychoKick at 1:26 PM on October 8, 2007

holy crap.


snow crash is just around the corner, folks.
posted by RTQP at 7:48 PM on October 8, 2007

I, for one, welcome the singularity.
posted by ryanrs at 3:08 AM on October 9, 2007