Researchers at Aerogel Technologies invent new process for making ultralight strong aerogel in unlimited sizes story.cd/AAIMSE

Here is why we will no longer be sending international packages via the United States Postal Service and you shouldn't either! @usps we hope you're listening. 1. Packages we send to other countries through the post office almost never arrive at their destination, and less than 10% make it back to us when they don't. 2. Packages always always get stuck in customs for weeks to months and all we see in tracking is that the package left the United States and then nothingness. Best case scenario usps.com will say it's stuck in customs clearance, but often it just drops off the face of the Earth whilst the website teases you with a bold-faced expected delivery date at the top of the page that is well in the past. 4. Our only recourse at this point is to request an international investigation for the missing package, which is a link you cannot get to through the usps.com website navigation infinite unhelpful faq loop and instead must be found using ai. 5. When you do try to file for an investigation, you have to log in to the usps.com's namby pamby login system, which two-factors you every time of which only half of the time does it actually send the code, and although sometimes it goes to spam, it often just doesn't ever come or takes so long that by the time you got it it expired and you have to request again. 6. The form you have to fill out requires a valid tracking number to initiate and then asks for the same gosh-darn set of addressing and contents information in two sections, noting all this information you filled out on the label at the post office and the system already has in its database attached to the tracking number. 7. Just as you almost get done filling out this stupid form it asks for photos of proof of value and the physical receipt from the post office proving you shipped it, despite it already knowing this information. Also btw the documents have to be less than 2.0 mb so make sure you know how to downscale images you took with your camera or scanner. 8. Just as you go to take, upload, and resize these photos, the form times out due to "inactivity" despite the fact you've been filling the stupid thing out continuously for five minutes. You now have to log in again, either getting or not-getting another two-factor code, and then repaste the secret url from ai in your address bar. 9. But lo! the browser displays a white page with a 1990s-era "fatal error" html notice at the top. You cannot reload or press back or whatever else your way out of this. You must open another browser window, paste the secret url again, log in again, and start the process over. 9. So you do, and you fill the stupid redundant form out again, this time vigilantly and paranoidly checking for the ill-positioned and not-mobile-friendly popup that displays the "click-to-continue" timeout button every few minutes while you are actively typing. And then you finally click submit and the screen goes gray, and the site looks like it's processing everything. But it's not. It just redirects you to the login page one more time. And no, the form didn't make it through and just happened to throw a browser glitch; you in fact never get an email acknowledgment and the request does not show in your account. However, this failure-to-submit event is a necessary, positive step towards eventually being able to actually submit the form. It happens every time. 10. So you grit your teeth, and try to log in again to finally beat usps.com's Kafka-esque system, entering the secret url one last time, entering the tracking number one last time, filling out the form again one last time, uploading your stupid downscaled photos one last time while remaining vigilent that the panic-inducing timeout overlay doesn't appear one last time, and finally click submit. You get the gray overlay again, this time with an animated "Processing....." dialog, and indeed after a few minutes you get to a page verifying your request was received, displaying a case number for your request while an email acknowledgment simultaneously arrives in your inbox--proving they *can* send email when they want to--stating it will take 12-14 days to perform the investigation. 11. Next, a week or two later you will get a form letter email from usps.com essentially stating the problem is the package is missing or stuck in customs in the foreign country and you can keep checking its status on usps.com. No duh. Sometimes the case manager manages to get in touch with customs only to find out the recipient has to pay a fee in order to get the package released and provides relevant contact info for you to forward to your poor customer--note the shipper cannot contact customs on the customer's behalf. Did I mention no one ever bothered to contact either us (the shipper) or the recipient about the situation despite having to fill your and your customer's email and phone multiple times in the shipping process? 12. Sometimes the customer can pay the fee and eventually gets the package. But in our experience many times it never arrives. Also a lot of aerogels are brittle and/or moisture- and gas-sensitive, and customs people definitely don't care and have their way with our materials. We have even received empty packages returned to sender. Thannnks customs ppl. So considerate of you. This costs us money both in terms of having to resend with another shipper and lost merchandise. This has happened to us in virtually every country in Europe, and in fact last month alone four important/urgent packages we took to the post office directly to ensure their arrival going to three different countries all ended up in limbo and required us to file four separate investigations, meaning we had to fill out that dumb form literally 12 times to do so. And it's not a Trump-era tariff thing. This insanity has been going on for a decade now. So we are pivoting to United Parcel Service exclusively for international packages, because they get it there and if there is a customs delay a customer service agent contacts you by email or phone and gets it out quickly.

Honored to have had the chance to discuss the future of #space #entrepreneurship alongside @aurelia_labs founder Ariel Ekblaw, astronaut @AstroIronMike, Rodrigo Diez, and Jordan Wachs at the @mitaeroastro SpaceTech conference on Apr 7! What an inspiring/intimidating group! Thank you @DavaExplorer for the invite! @MIT youtube.com/playlist?list=PL…

Our future in space is just getting started--Aerogel Technologies founder Stephen Steiner provides his perspectives on the @MITAeroAstro SpaceTech conference alumni entrepreneur panel youtube.com/watch?v=qgSaW6cu…

Thoughts and prayers to the 13 employees injured in the explosion at @AspenAerogels East Providence plant. Our love and support to everyone affected.

Aerogel adhesive tape? What a great idea! The easiest way to insulate tight spaces with space-age technology buyaerogel.com/product/foli-…

Transparent metal is now possible! Metallic aerogels composed of silver, gold, and copper can be made by force field directed physical vapor deposition of metal over a silica aerogel. Electrostatic field lines emanating from the aerogel guide incoming metal atoms where to go. lab-salomon.com/publications

Love the deep dive @korea_ufo has done on air-buoyant solids aka vacuum balloons made with aerogel. We worked with Los Alamos National Laboratory to create prototypes and gave them the Airloy formulation to start aerogel development with. We will answer any and all questions. youtu.be/xEFeoRJkgEw?si=VjNq…

Here's five things we can do to bring chemical and materials #manufacturing back to the #usa. 1. Reduce regulations impeding in-facility solvent recycling 2. Stop taxing industrial uses of ethanol like booze 3. Simplify and harmonize regulations surrounding chemical packaging and transport 4. Eliminate penalties for infractions that do not result in release of chemicals into the environment, e.g., industrial hygiene regulations 5. Open more hazardous waste disposal sites and subsidize safe disposal of waste @realDonaldTrump @doge @elonmusk @epa @epaleezeldin @USDOT