Making Light:  Open thread 59 ::: February 07, 2006, 03:14 PM

John:  Aerogel is tempting, but pricey.  I've occasionally thought of
something to do with it, but nothing practical comes to mind right
now.  Hmm.  I was amused to read that "Aerogel is composed of 99.8%
air and is chemically similar to ordinary glass."  I'd think it would
be chemically similar to air.  It's 1/3 air by weight, but that means
only half the molecules are SiO2.

Hmm.  I wonder how you suffuse it with another gas.  (put it in a
vacuum and see if it acts like Ivory soap?)  I read somewhere that
H2+Cl2 can be ignited by light.  So if you suffuse an aerogel with
these gases, then turn on the light, I wonder if it would explode or
just burn on the periphery.  Makes me long for my basement chem lab,
but maybe I should just be glad I survived.

Supermagnets are also tempting, and I guess I could be careful about
checking the friends and family for metal bits, but what if the UPS
guy has a pacemaker?  Sounds like I might not want to play with them
at home.