COLIN DAVIDS, BRIDGWATER
WHAT IS THE STRONGEST MATERIAL IN THE UNIVERSE?
By the ‘strength’ of a material, we usually mean the degree to which it can withstand deformation by an external force. So, the strongest materials are generally those with high densities because the closer the constituent atoms are, the greater the resistance they have to further compression. For normal matter, however, structural properties also affect strength, so the strongest naturally occurring material on Earth (graphene) isn’t actually the densest (osmium).