Mythbuster Developing U.S. Military Armor

MythBusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (photo) have a reputation for blending the nutty professor's scientific method with the daredevil's lust for pyrotechnic hijinks. They've debunked many a schoolyard myth and urban legend on their popular television show, and done it all with Christmas-morning glee. In the name of science they've fired cheese out of canons, driven cars off cliffs and even lit a match head with a bullet fired from a .45 caliber pistol.

Wacky experiments aside, the dynamic duo's technical, up-close-and-personal work with TNT and C4 explosives has garnished the attention of the U.S. government, debunking the myth that playing with dynamite leads to a dead-end career.

Because of his explosive resume and MythBusters' idiosyncratic settings, Jamie Hyneman has recently been working with the Office of Naval Research to develop lightweight armor for U.S. military vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We had a lot of experience in the show dealing with explosives, obviously in ways and situations that are outside the norm. This is very revealing, because when you see something outside the norm you get to see what the boundaries of the phenomenon are," Hyneman told The Register.

"I'd looked at those and formed a lot of questions in my head. When I saw the opportunity to do research on a topic, I got very active and applied a lot of what I'd learned on the show."

Hyneman's task was to devise an ultra-lightweight armor that wouldn't weigh-down vehicles, but was still strong enough to withstand shrapnel and blast damage from powerful improvised explosive devices (IED's) while protecting those inside the vehicle from the blast's pressure wave.

Read more at Discovery News