# What's the story on starlite (material)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239 "2011-06-12T19:58:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/1 "2011-06-12T19:58:06Z")
I’m not sure if the telegraph is a reputable newspaper, but it has an article about [starlite](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5158972/Starlite-the-nuclear-blast-defying-plastic-that-could-change-the-world.html), which claims to be a material with absolutely revolutionary thermal properties. It makes lots of claims about specific tests and quotes from specific people that support the notion. But the whole story pegs my BS meter pretty hard. The idea that we’ve got a super advanced, revolutionary material that would have many uses, but no one wanted to bother to buy a license for it, is an extremely difficult claim to swallow. And the material itself sounds entirely too revolutionary and too good to be true. Combining these two bullshits make the plausibility of it roughly bullshit^2. So what’s the story here, which parts are bullshit? Are the claims about having it given to the various agencies for tests lies? Is the whole thing made up? Is it real with the properties it claims yet no one finds it useful enough to bother to pay the licensing fee? Edit: Here’s a youtube [youtube video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxqFyDugqs4&feature=player_embedded) of the egg/blowtorch demonstration ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/2 "2011-06-12T20:20:34Z")
[Nitpick]Bunsen burner not a blow torch[/Nitpick] I wonder about the qualifications of someone in a lab that does not know what a Bunsen burner is. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/3 "2011-06-12T20:48:32Z")
The blowtorch test was a demonstration for a tv show, I think, rather than the bunsen burner test conducted at a lab mentioned in the article. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/4 "2011-06-12T21:10:23Z")
Sounds like bullshit to me. First, he’d only have to give a matchstick sized sample to any major materials company to make them suddenly very interested. Second, things that need dozens of ingredients only get that way through experimentation that is very complicated and probably out of reach of a lone inventor. Third, the story is too complicated, and there is video involved, and things that supposedly mimic a nuclear blast - none of this would be reasonable. I don’t have a piece of his material, and only skimmed the article, but I place my bet on “bullshit”. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/5 "2011-06-12T21:14:39Z")
From what I’ve read it’s not that no-one wanted to buy a licence, it’s that the inventor was fanatical about keeping control of his idea, and hence made demands considered unreasonable by potential commercial partners, about controlling the use of the idea and so on. Hence he keeps the formula in his head. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/6 "2011-06-12T21:15:36Z")
[NBC video interview with him here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJNCIr2-JM&feature=related). Apparently the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment at Foulness tested the material with a nuclear flash and the Royal Signals and RADAR establishment tested it with high-powered lasers (according to [this](http://www.rexresearch.com/ward/ward.htm)). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/7 "2011-06-12T21:16:51Z")
The Telegraph is a reputable newspaper, but maybe this journalist has been taken for a ride. I agree with you. This story is absolutely riddled with implausibilities. Unfortunately, once a paper’s technology journalist has been conned there is probably no-one higher up on most papers’ editorial staff who knows enough about science and technology to catch it. I do not think anyone these days is mixing up revolutionary new types of plastic in their kitchen food mixer. Who is subjecting anything to nuclear blasts these days? Nuclear weapons are no longer being tested. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/8 "2011-06-12T21:25:34Z")
It sounds to me like he has actually invented something that might be useful, but is something of a paranoid eccentric who is difficult to deal with, and no one has determined the commercial value of his invention to be greater than the aggravation involved in dealing with him. Furthermore, what he is claiming is not all that revolutionary - aerogel has been around for years, and has similar properties, although his invention does seem to have some advantages over it. > **[Aerogel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel)** > > Aerogels are a class of synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component for the gel has been replaced with a gas, without significant collapse of the gel structure. The result is a solid with extremely low density and extremely low thermal conductivity. Aerogels can be made from a variety of chemical compounds. Silica aerogels feel like fragile expanded polystyrene to the touch, while some polymer-based aerogels feel like rigid foams. > The first documented... This crap about resisting a nuclear blast is just bullshit. Yeah, the material may be able to withstand relatively high temperatures, but if something gets close enough to a nuclear explosion, it will all turn to plasma no matter what it’s made of. Furthermore, this stuff is not going to stand up to the atmospheric shock wave from a nuclear blast, nor shield anyone from neutrons, x-rays, etc. If this guy wanted to, he could just file a patent, and go on the road giving demonstrations to companies who might be interested in an exclusive license for their industry. A shame that someone with his apparent technical skill and knowledge does not know how to navigate the commercial world. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/9 "2011-06-12T22:18:23Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Apparently the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment at Foulness tested the material with a nuclear flash Yeah, right. When was the last UK nuclear test done – late 1960’s? This is BS. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/10 "2011-06-12T22:29:01Z")
I think they’re claiming it was tested with a simulated nuclear flash - the same temperature and such. [Here’s the original segment on “Tomorrow’s World”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4nnLP--uTI&feature=player_embedded&t=1m8s) The test certain looks impressive to this layman. Is it a hoax, or are there other materials we have that already do that? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/11 "2011-06-12T23:00:09Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Yeah, right. When was the last UK nuclear test done – late 1960’s? This is BS. Fucking hell. Does anybody bother reading shit before commenting on it anymore? > [@](#): > > Starlite-coated eggs were subjected to light-energy sources that simulated a nuclear flash, equivalent to a temperature of 10,000 C. > … > In tests at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern, Starlite was pulsed with lasers that would normally have burned through polymer. Instead, as Pohling-Brown reported in a widely-read article in International Defence Review in 1993, ‘Starlite showed little damage to the surface, merely small pits with the approximate diameter of the beam and with little evidence of melting.’ Whether the breathless claims in the article are credible or not I’ll leave for others to decide. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/12 "2011-06-12T23:50:55Z")
The whole thing reads like a cheesy Hollywood screenplay, whether it’s true or not. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/13 "2011-06-12T23:59:10Z")
I’d seen the Starlite demo on US television back in the early '80’s, basically a copy of UK presentation. It’s hard to see what is really happening in the “egg under blowtorch” test, but lots of what the guy says, sounds like bunk. I did read some other opinions of it on the sci.chem newsgroup back in the day, and those discussions are archived, so you can browse them. It always looked to me like epoxy resin with asbestos mixed in. [http://groups.google.com/group/sci.chem/search?group=sci.chem&q=starlite&qt\_g=Search+this+group](http://groups.google.com/group/sci.chem/search?group=sci.chem&q=starlite&qt_g=Search+this+group) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/14 "2011-06-13T00:10:36Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > with asbestos mixed in. Well, that might explain why no established, reputable company wants to touch it. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-on-starlite-material/585239/15 "2011-06-13T07:02:46Z")
No established, reputable company knows what’s in it. What happens if you blow-torch an egg that hasn’t been Starlite-coated?