Science Fare

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Our guest today is Stephen Steiner: President, CEO, and founder of Aerogel Technologies. Stephen has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Materials Chemistry and Engineering which he completed in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Master’s Degree in Materials Science and Engineering, also from MIT. 

Stephen has such an interesting story of really falling in love with science at a young age and doing so many interesting things on both the discovery side and the business side of science, really focused on aerogels. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Stephen’s Aerogel Website 

Photo of an aerogel - looks holographic

Aerogel Protects Chocolate from Blowtorch video

Search “Supercritical Magic Carpet” on Youtube 

Search “World’s Lightest Solid” on Youtube 

Highlights of the episode:

*Susan introduces Stephen and today’s topic [1:24];

*Stephen tells us what aerogels are [3:20];

*Stephen talks about his middle school science fair projects which he did for extra credit, not because he liked science — at first! [4:27];

*Stephen’s high school science fair projects, now that he liked science! [6:09];

*Stephen’s foray into competitive science seminar with a teacher who taught him the algorithm for creativity [9:30];

*Things to consider when picking a research topic [12:23];

*Stephen’s first foray into making an aerogel [15:28]; 

*Removing a liquid from a gel while preserving the gel-like structure in a process called supercritical drying [21:10];

*Stephen decides to make an autoclave for supercritical drying [24:58];

*After FORTY tries, Stephen makes his first aerogel in his basement, at age 17! [30:00];

*Having a do-it-yourself attitude and persistence [35:14];

*Stephen’s experience with normal science classes while he was conducting real research in his basement in middle and high school [37:05];

*Undergrad institutions and what it takes to get in [45:04];

*Stephen applying to graduate programs and getting into MIT [49:05];

*Senior, established scientists like to help younger people who reach out for help [52:52];

*Stephen’s commitment to sharing knowledge and making knowledge accessible [53:22];

*Aerogels and their interesting properties [1:01:32];

*Why aerogels are such good insulators — the Knudsen effect [1:04:52];

*How do properties of elements perpetuate in aerogels made out of those elements? [1:10:27];

*How aerogels were first invented [1:15:29];

*Why making aerogels ends up breaking the ideal gas law [1:18:35];

*What does it mean when PV no longer equals nRT? [1:20:53];

*What is the critical point? Liquid and the gas become the same! [1:25:12];

*Properties of supercritical fluids and the magic in watching them form [1:29:12];

*Applications of aerogels kicked off by a listener question from Riley, a junior from the Chapin School, about aerogels and space travel [1:33:07];

*The challenging problem of insulating cryogenic tanks for rockets and potential for polyimide aerogels to solve this [1:37:07];

*What advice does Stephen have for students interested in science? Spoiler: Thorium! [1:45:40]