Romancing the Thread: the Story of Dyneema®
I was asked to write the story of Dyneema®. As world’s strongest, lightest fiber, this plastic works to stop bullets, moor oil rigs and repair human joints. It’s also been behind some of the more iconic images of recent times: upturning the stranded cruise ship Costa Concordia in Italy, placing the crown on the Freedom Tower in NYC, and the tethering of satellites in outer space.
As I talked to the various players behind its decades-long march to market, I discovered that chemistry can be a very rock’n'roll game: “involving multiple co-inventors, dismissive managers, happy accidents, quantum technological leaps, commercial innovations and a few experiments that under current regulations would be considered safety violations.”
One killer quote: “One Saturday I remember asking someone to go get us some coffees but he couldn’t walk because the rubber of his shoes had partially dissolved and he was glued to the floor.”
Another killer quote: “Excuse me, could you please tell me what the value is of a cooked soldier?”
And a third: “It’s funny to think it all just started with some stirring in a pot.”
Read the full feature HERE.
(Thanks to DSM-Dyneema and Super Stories for arranging the access. I learned stuff!)
Tags: Branding, Design, Journalism
