Smacker: “May I just whack you on the head with this shovel?”
Smackee: “You may.”
A new orange goo called D3O remains soft until you smack it with something (a shovel, say) at which point it becomes extremely rigid — hard enough to protect your head from a tumble over your handlebars, or from a good smack with most gardening tools.
According to the company website, a layer just 7mm thick (about a quarter of an inch) can protect you from some pretty violent impacts, and they’re building some really neat protective clothing for snowboarders, mountain bikers and other people who fall down a lot.
The D3O lab says the protection is provided by molecules that “flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb the impact energy.” It seems to have worked to some extent for the the guy getting smacked in the video, but judging from the way his arms flinch up during that last bonk on his head, falling off your bike still won’t be any fun.
Thanks, Daniel!
1 response so far ↓
1 B // Jun 9, 2009 at 9:37 pm
This is reminiscent of Juggernaut. What would stop someone from wearing gloves of d3o and running around punching people?
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