Researchers Dr. Lyndon Arnold and Dr. Rajiv Padhye at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, say that a blend of wool and Kevlar®, the synthetic fiber widely used in body armor, is lighter and cheaper and works better in some conditions than Kevlar alone. A Kevlar vest loses about 20 percent of its effectiveness when wet, requiring an expensive waterproofing process, but wool fibers expand naturally in water, so the wool-Kevlar blend fabric actually becomes more effective in wet conditions. Photo courtesy of RMIT University.
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