'Blacker Than Black' Is the New Black

It's intended for military use, but it may also interest fashionistas: Scientists claim to have engineered a new "blacker than black" color that absorbs far more light than any previously known shade of black. The new ultrablack metamaterial—a type of material made of components smaller than the wavelengths of light they interact with—is composed of 35-nanometers-in-diameter silver wires embedded in 51-micrometer-thick squares of aluminum oxide.

Tested with near-infrared radiation from just beyond the red end of the visible spectrum, a polished version of the material reflected 20% of the light. The inventors of the material expect it to be used primarily by the military in building equipment invisible to radar, New Scientist reports.
(More metamaterials stories.)