The University of Kent is cooking up a shock absorbing gel. Traditional bullet proof vests stop projectiles from peircing but you will still feel a kick. This new material could be used to soften the blow! Via Smithsonian:
The team ran the same experiment with a control gel. When pelted with a supersonic particle, the control gel allowed it to pass through and bore a crater in the aluminum plate behind the gel. The projectile was also destroyed in the process. The researchers published their findings on the preprint server bioRxiv; the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.
“Our material perfectly caught and ‘cuddled’ with the projectile … keeping it beautifully preserved,” says paper co-author Jennifer Hiscock, a supramolecular chemist at the University of Kent, to New Scientist’s Carissa Wong.
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