# Is Anyone Still Researching Along the Lines of Pykrete? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511 "2005-01-31T01:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/1 "2005-01-31T01:55:47Z")
[Pykrete](http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/1928/pykrete.htm), of course, being a mixture of water and sawdust frozen until it becomes rock hard. Given that pykrete can stop a bullet and is extremely cheap to produce, I’m wondering if folks aren’t working at seeing if they can’t combine _other_ common substances with water to achieve an unusual compound. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/2 "2005-01-31T02:04:01Z")
We could get a jump on designing construction materials for the Titan climate! ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/3 "2005-01-31T02:18:13Z")
The [last](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=188566) [few](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=131185) [times](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=131185) this has been brought up coughed up a few not overly helpful answers. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/4 "2005-01-31T12:26:54Z")
It’s incidental to the question, but, particularly since nobody has pointed it out in any of the previous threads, Geoffrey’s son was Magnus Pyke - Britain’s quintessential TV boffin in the 1970s and 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/5 "2005-02-01T10:46:14Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > Geoffrey’s son was Magnus Pyke Do you have a cite for that, **bonzer**? I’m not trying to be snarky, I’m genuinely curious. In [this thread from June 2003](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=192887) (in which **Squirebob** wanted ideas for a fictional “Big Bloody Battleship”, and **BraheSilver** suggested that it be made out of pykrete), [I wrote:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=3607949&postcount=12) > [@](#): > > It turns out (from the last-linked site) that Geoffrey Pyke was Magnus Pyke’s cousin. The latter was a British TV “Mad Scientist”, best known in the US for appearing in the 1983 video of Thomas Dolby’s song “She Blinded Me With Science”. I wonder if there are any surviving relatives who have the Pyke “Mad Scientist” gene? Apart from the Internet, I don’t currently have access to any Pyke family biographical information. The only link I could find at the time was [this](http://www.navynews.co.uk/articles/2002/0201/0002010301.asp) one, which referred to Geoffrey and Magnus as cousins. After a fresh Google search, I’ve found [this WW2 model messageboard](http://www.hobbytalk.org/Secret_Allied_Weapons_of_WWII-1820671-303-a.html), in which a poster claims that Geoffrey and Magnus were _brothers_, with no supporting cite. Now, [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Pyke) has **Magnus Pyke** dying in 1992 at age 83, which means that he was born in either 1908 or 1909. [This](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pete_hall_uk/pyke.htm) short biography of **Geoffrey Pyke** (of Pykrete fame) has him born in 1894. Although it would not have been **impossible** for a budding teenage eccentric engineer/inventor to father a child at age 13, 14, or 15 in Edwardian England, it **does** seem like a stretch. If you have a cite for a father/son relationship, I’d be very happy to be shown to be at fault! [[This](http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/visugate/public_nbmar96.hcsp) 1996 obituary of Edward J. Pyke mentions “his cousins Geoffrey & Magnus Pyke”, but that does not really provide any more detail regarding their relationship.] ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/6 "2005-02-01T10:59:04Z")
Damnit, I have a book (_Butter Side Up_), written by Magnus Pyke, with a chapter about Pykrete that would answer this question definitively. Unfortunately it’s in storage. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anyone-still-researching-along-the-lines-of-pykrete/287511/7 "2005-02-01T12:18:12Z")
> [@Antonius Block](#): > > Do you have a cite for that, **bonzer**? I’m not trying to be snarky, I’m genuinely curious. No, other than memory, which as you’ve demonstrated can easily be faulty.