Daedalus once invented a 'fractal' concrete. Ordinary concrete contains gravel, the interstices of which are filled with sand, the interstices of which contain reactive cement suspension. Daedalus' concrete had big spaces filled with big particles, the gaps between them filled by smaller ones, the gaps between those filled by smaller ones still, and so on.... The tiny, densely reticulated network left for binding cement could contain high-performance polymer.

Suppose the nested particles were replaced by air bubbles. With each designed to fit neatly in the gaps left by the next larger size, the result would be an immensely complicated foam, nearly all air (or whatever gas was used to blow it). It would be enormously strong for its weight. Evaporation would be poor as a setting reaction. The solvent would take ages to escape through the many almost monomolecular layers, and might take the gas with it. Polymerization would be better; carbonization might be better still. So DREADCO chemists are at work.

With a liquid monomer such as a superglue or a substituted acrylate, the result should be a wonderfully light, translucent foam. Blown with hydrogen or helium, it might be lighter than air, a building-block for Zeppelins. Blown with air, it would rival the aerogels as a thermally insulating filling for two-wall skylights. Indeed, if the bubble-size could be kept away from a wavelength of light, it might even be transparent. As a paint, it should be a wonderful absorber of sound. Weak sounds would be almost completely absorbed by 'pumping' the small bubbles flat at each cycle. Strong sounds should suffer little loss. Thus in a church, ringing calls to repent should survive unattenuated, while the small random noises of the congregation itself would be lost.

The biggest challenge, of course, is carbonization. Battery-makers long for a way of storing hydrogen, possibly under the inherent pressure of its monolayer on benzenoid carbon, using nanotubes or their derivatives. The DREADCO team reckon that a carbonized foam, taken to almost atomic dimensions, should be able to store vast amounts of hydrogen, and deliver power electrolytically via a carbon electrode. It could then be recharged with hydrogen again. With luck both small-scale applications such as mobile phones, and even big ones such as hydrogen-powered cars, could use the new electrode.