The idea of completely dark material is fascinating. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University recently broke the record for the world’s darkest known material, four times darker than the previous record holder. But let’s leave pure regurgitation to the news sites; what’s color - and what would completely dark material be like?

When put side-to-side with fascination of the unknown, interest in the dark isn’t as shady. Darkness encapsulates the unexplored, leaving imagination virtually unbound. Uncertainties, possibilities and abnormalities: Being the enthusiastic, curious hunks of meat that we are, we have to take a quick look at what color is.

What’s Color?

Light is electromagnetic radiation (photons) transmitted at different wavelengths. The specific wavelength that reaches our eyes is a combination of radiation from the light-emitting source and surface properties of objects that reflect it. Once reflected off an object, the radiation stimulates rods and cones in our retinas which in turn send signals through the monstrous labyrinth of the optic nerve to the brain. (That’s the short version, at least. We’re leaving out what happens in the brain.)

The Macula, marked above, is an area that contains
a high number of only cones (no rods).

Black is the result of an object absorbing radiation, thereby reflecting little or nothing. When this happens, there’s nothing to stimulate our rods and cones and thus no signals are sent to our brain. And to emphasize the artificial flavor: There is no color, simply patterns of radiation. Color is in your head.

Latest Dark Material Reflects 0.045% Light

Recently the sphere was ablaze with reports on the latest dark material; an array of carbon nanotubes that only reflects 0.045 percent light. A memetic, mental picture cited in a few online articles explains that the new material is 100 times darker than a black-painted Corvette. (If I knew how dark a black-painted Corvette was, that might be more meaningful.)

The potential use of dark materials is, for example, solar panel coating. With increased absorption we capture more of the radiation and can consequently produce more energy. But what tickles me conceptually is the idea of getting to absolute zero reflection.

Envisioning Complete Darkness

To my knowledge, the visual properties of absolutely dark materials would be void. No depth, no texture, no reflection. The following examples depict what this might look like — but admittedly, the full effect would be twice as potent if we had 3D models and motion.

THE HOUSE
Imagine an object with zero reflection. Your house: It is impossible to detect any corners, textures or shapes inside its outline. Depth is perceptually eradicated. All that remains is your house’s silhouette; a black monolithic structure against a clouded sky.

THE ART EXHIBIT
For a more potent example, we’re at an art exhibit and we’re looking at a picture that appears to be just a black canvas. It actually looks more like a hole in the wall as there’s no visible shade or texture. Growing bored of it, we start walking towards the next picture — but notice something curious: Now that we’re looking at the black painting from the side, we see that it actually has a sharp spear protruding from its center. A spear that earlier was only 4 centimeters from our eye, waiting to scratch our cornea.

Left: Absolutely dark painting/sculpture, seen head-on.
Right: Same painting, seen from the side.

Forget pointing a flashlight at it, eye-piercing fluorescent lighting or even Hollywood’s entire arsenal of flood-lights: this painting would still look exactly like what’s pictured above. Dark.

That’s completely dark material to our gray matter.

Links & References

• Darkest Material (Press release)
• Eye Cross-section figure courtesy of NIH - National Eye Institute
• Light on Wikipedia (see also visible light and the color black)