Vantablack: The Darkest Material On Earth

<p>!!!REAL LIFE INVENTOR ALERT!!!</p><br><p>Usually we talk about dead people on this podcast. It is history after all. But this week we’ve got living, breathing Ben Jen on talking about his invention Vantablack.</p><br><p>Vantablack is so dark, so black, that all details of the objects it covers dissolves. 99.965% of light that hits it is absorbed. It is no longer possible to tell what you are looking at. All you see is a black hole in space.</p><br><p>It was created by Ben and his colleagues at his company Surrey Nanosystems. They produced it for the space industry who had asked for something really, really good at absorbing light.</p><br><p>But this darkest of materials has gone on to have a life of its own causing outrage in the art world and provoking emotional responses in everyone that sees its strangeness.</p><br><p>The episode was produced by Freddy Chick</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The senior producer is Charlotte Long</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters<a href="https://www.historyhit.com/sign-up-to-history-hit/?utm_source=timelinenewsletter&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Timeline+Podcast+Campaign" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> here.</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts, and audiobooks at History Hit -<a href="https://access.historyhit.com/?utm_source=audio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Podcast+Campaign&utm_id=Podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> subscribe today</a>!</p> <hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>