...and you have the heart of a banking executive...

a sphere made of this stuff could be interesting, especially when left out in the sun.

I thought brown was the new black! Or is it orange that's the new pink?

Fashion is sooooo confusing.

PH icon because she'd know whether you can wear ultra-black after Memorial Day or whatever.

Nanotubes, nanotubes, is there anything these clever wee beasties can't do? I bet they even taste good, in a charcoaly kind of way.

Burp.

Or, as The Stranger in The Big Lebowski would have it, "darker than a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night".

The really, really, really, black jacket please.

"Blacker than the blackest black, times infinity."

What would an object with a total reflective index of 0 look like? Would you be able to see it? (Following on from JonB...)

than the outlook of the markets at the moment

or the PMs mood when he realises his strength in the economy has been somewhat under mined recently

Yes, cos it's black, not invisible.

"What would an object with a total reflective index of 0 look like? Would you be able to see it?"

That depends on how hot it was. It would have a black body radiation curve so if you warmed it up it would glow like anything else.

If it was at room temperature, I guess it would just look like a two-dimensional black shape unless you donned your infrared glasses.

It was in Father Ted.

I think you'll find that Percy invested some 'Green'.

Also, I think HotBlack Desiato beat Clarkson to the coolest blackest vehicle award. (See Douglas Adams)

Black Helicopter icon - what else.

Lord Percy Percy: I've done it, my Lord! I've discovered how to turn things into gold! Pure gold!

Blackadder: You have? Show me!

Lord Percy Percy: [takes lid off melting pot, and Baldrick, Percy and Blackadder are bathed in a green glow] Behold!

Blackadder: Percy... it's green.

Lord Percy Percy: Yes, my Lord!

Blackadder: Now, look, Percy, I don't mean to be pedantic or anything, but the color of gold... is gold. That's why it's called gold. What YOU have discovered, if it has a name, is some... Green.

Lord Percy Percy: [removes lump of Green from pot] Oh, Edmund... can it be true? That I hold here, in my mortal hand, a nugget of purest Green?

Blackadder: Yes indeed, Percy, except that it's not really a nugget but more of a splat.

Lord Percy: Yes, my Lord. A splat today, but tomorrow, who knows, or dares to dream...

re: Coat A Diamond with it..

No. Banking executives have no heart.

re: Alchemy

No. What Lord Percy invented was 'purest green'.

re: The goths now have their work cut out...

No. They would have them too.

re: Void

No. It would 'look' like you were floating in a void - it would 'feel' like you were sitting on a floor.

Um, can anyone see where I put my coat?..

Yes. Black. Black. Black! Like the clouds of death that follow me into the Forest of Doom! And hide in the wardrobe of darkness! Black!

Black! Black!

Black! Black!

Black! Listen! Listen! Do you hear? The moon is weeping in a secret room! They tap at my window, with tiny poles!

Oh! Oh! The monks are troubled and full of woe! I'm a fly! Trapped in a jar of shadows!

Father Ted: That's right, Dougal. You see, ordinary shops sell what look like black socks, but if you look closely, you'll see that they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue.

Coating the inside of a small box with this stuff would create a cool 'bottomless pit in a box' effect as well.

also "It's the weird colour scheme that freaks me. Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls, which are labeled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it. Hey, what is this, some kind of galactic hyper-hearse?"

Indeed - "Money" is definitely the funniest Blackadder episode ever!

...bring on the flames.... I'm ready for you :-)

The future is dark! The future is black!

This'd be great for an anarchist black flag... >:)

I've located a JPG of it for you -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95389999@N00/2196884119/

I did it myself in mspaint!

.

Anyway, I'd like to know how big they've managed to make this wonder material. I'm thinking maybe as big as two nano-metres! Kind of like how they make wigs?

ROFLMAO!!

Fast Show at its best.

They wait for me in the forest....

Now, all we need is a way to make a portable hole... and I could carry a black hole in my pocket. Is this like that whole tea/no tea thing since a hole is the absence of matter? Could I fake it with a sphere of the stuff?

will be soooo in lurv with these guys.

Maybe I'm not understanding this, but I thought that the only reason we could visibally see things was due to the light reflecting off of it? Therefore, if something were to absorb all light, wouldn't we just... not... see it? Trying to figure this out is making my brain itch, inside

You are right, you would not see much light coming back from an object coated with this, but you would see light coming back from whatever was around it so you would easily be able to see the outline. As someone mentioned above, it would look two-dimensional because ALL you can see is the outline so a sphere would look like a circle for example. A person's face coated in this and standing in profile would make a perfect living silhouette (not practical of course but interesting to think about). That said, the reflectivity of even this substance is 1/2000th or so, so I believe human eyes could still make out some detail under bright light (say sunlight) but indoors probably not.

Hillary Clinton's heart?

Sorry couldn't resist :o)

I've got a black t-shirt with black writing that states "I'm only wearing black until they invent something darker!"

Looks like my wish is coming true...

This is absolutly true Louis.

Therefore what you would be seeing when you looked at it would be the absence of any reflected light (this is why black is black), so you would still (rather easily) percieve it visually, if not actually see it in the most literal scientific sense of the word.

In essence what you would see is a patch of black amongst everything else around it.

It would certainly look (near as dammit) 2D, due to this, you certainly would not be able to see any surface detail unless in profile (so in a way these details are invisible).

Does this help?

If this absorbs so much light, could it in theory soak up all the light in the universe, thus rendering us an eternity in darkness, except for the dim glow of 0.045% of the remaining light.