In Materials Science, scientists are excited about the myriad of potential uses of Graphene. From lighter but sturdier products to even being effective water filters, Graphene promises a lot. For those developing body protection, Graphene poses a far better solution than what Kevlar does and does it in a thinner way, and of course double the stopping power.

According to Gizmag, researchers Edwin Thomas of Rice University and assistant professor Jae-Hwang Lee of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, put 300 layers of Graphene together that provided 10 times the strength of steel. You might say that it's a lot of layers to achieve that strenght, but since Graphene is so thin and light that the sheets were 10 to 100 nanometers thick. That means it's a very light material to be used in layers and still won't add much to the weight of a vest.

They then focused a laser on a gold filament, vaporizing it into a projectile flying at 3,000 meters per second. They found out that the Graphene layers provided a stopping power twice that of Kevlar.

With such new purposes, the scientists see developing full body armor that can cover much of a soldier's body with lesser weight to worry about. They also see protection for space vehicles as they can be coated by graphene which can then protect them from space debris.

More military applications of Graphene can mean more applications for airsoft. If it becomes readily available in the future, who knows? We see airsoft guns that durable and light weight protection without compromising the load that we carry to the field.