Goths Rejoice: Scientists Invent Darkest Material on Earth

Ever get that "not so goth" feeling? The black clothes favored by the goth subculture can brighten after exposure to too much sunlight – and even when black clothes are brand new, you always get the feeling that they could be just a tad darker.

Soon, they could be. Scientists at Rice University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a material that is nearly 30 times darker than the carbon substance used by U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology as the standard of blackness. With a total reflective index of 0.045 percent, the new material lets almost no light escape.

Its inventors envision the material being used in solar panels collectors, because it allows so few of the sun's rays to escape. But if it can be applied to cloth, the world's goth community will almost certainly wear the result. There is none more black.

Here's how it works, according to Reuters:

It is composed of carbon nano-tubes, tiny tubes of tightly rolledcarbon that are 400 hundred times smaller than the diameter of a strandof hair. The carbon helps absorb some of the light.

These tubes are standing on end, much like a patch of grass. This arrangement traps light in the tiny gaps between the "blades."

The researchers have also made the surface of this carbon nano-tube carpet irregular and rough to cut down on reflectivity.

"Such a nano-tube array not only reflects light weakly, but alsoabsorbs light strongly," said Shawn-Yu Lin, a professor of physics atRensselaer, who helped make the substance.

(image of 2,500-times magnification of the material from reuters)