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Obtaining Unobtainium at DARPAtech 2004

Engineers are not usually happy about using the term "unobtainium" - a reference to a material that outperforms anything known (and is therefore unobtainable).

But at DARPA, obtaining unobtainium is an everyday goal - and they are succeeding:

• In the Stealth program DARPA developed materials that do, in fact, make aircraft invisible to radar.
• Amorphous metals - metals without grain boundaries - promise to make ship hulls that are corrosion resistant and nonmagnetic.
• Inexpensive titanium - new processes that may result in low cost titanium, perhaps as low as $2 per pound

Can you think of other examples of "unobtainium" from sf?

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