A strange-looking experiment in 1965 led to Kevlar, the material used in bulletproof vests |
In the mid-1960s, inside a research laboratory run by DuPont, Stephanie Kwolek was searching for something fairly practical. The company wanted lightweight yet durable fibres that could eventually replace steel in vehicle tyres and reduce fuel consumption. Synthetic materials were already common in industry by then, but the challenge was finding one that could survive…