Now you can’t tear up your parking tickets
| Jun 26th, 2008Apparently the Swedish have now developed a cellulose-fibre paper (dubbed “nanopaper”) that is nearly as strong as steel. It’s made from the usual wood pulp, but treated in such a way that the fine, long fibres retain their strength in processing.
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14084-new-superpaper-is-stronger-than-cast-iron.html
Normal paper has a tensile strength less than 1 MPa. Mechanical testing shows this new stuff has a tensile strength of 214 megapascals, making it stronger than cast iron (130 MPa) and almost as strong as structural steel (250 MPa).
As a writer, I suppose I should think about my words being preserved forever on this amazing stuff. However, my first thought on reading this was that we would see yet more stupid advertising for ultra-strong bathroom tissue. Cavorting fluffy kittens in Japanese Samurai Armor hacking at the rolls with their katanas. (soft AND strong!!)
What that says about me, I hesitate to ponder.