http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20142309-26220.html

Forget carbon nanothreads, here is a great article about creating super strong nanothreads from diamonds.

So if you’re putting a space elevator in your story you may want to make it out of diamond. I might just drop this my follow-on to SIMPOC which is in work. This may also make a great super strong space suit or even bullet proof clothing.

Considering making super strong materials, I was talking with an expert in materials about this article and he mentioned work that is attempting to create hydrogen metal. We debated what the material properties could be for hydrogen metal and we presumed that it could be lighter and many times stronger than titanium or metal. Also give the abundance of hydrogen in the universe it would make an interesting material for space ship hulls.

We’ll move beyond the fact that current attempts at creating hydrogen metal have yielded very small amounts, and they are barely within the definition of metal. Aside from that little issue there are a couple of other ‘minor’ technical issues that need to be solved, but hey; that’s never slowed down a good Sci-Fi author.

Once again, if there is anything I write about that you’d like to use in your story; go for it.

 

Ray Jay Perreault