The paint, developed at Purdue University’s mechanical engineering department, reflects 98.1 percent of the sun’s rays, while the strongest heat-resistant white paints currently on the market reflect 80 to 90 percent. The new pigment’s superpower is that, by absorbing so little infrared heat, it actually cools the material it’s covering below the ambient temperature. (So far, tests show 8 degrees below ambient at noon and 19 degrees at night.) Nothing like that has ever been achieved before, and the potential implications are huge. – Smithsonian Magazine