A new fabric, Zetix, has been tested resisting bomb blasts due to the principles of auxetics where objects get fatter the more you stretch them. As crazy as this sounds, there are fascinating properties out there that always makes me wonder how it can be and this is just another example of that. Gizmodo has more about this blast-resistant fabric:

To demonstrate how Zetix works, the best thing is to look how a thread behaves. When you jump from a bridge using a bungee cord, the force of gravity acting over your body weight will stretch it as you go down in free fall. While this happens, the cord threads will stretch getting closer together and making the cord get thinner as it expands through a larger distance.

However, if you coil a line around the bungee cord, something that defies logic will happen: the whole structure will get wider as it stretches. As you can see in the image, the line around the bungee cord becomes taut, making the bungee itself flex outward. This principle is called helical-auxetics. When you put two of these threads together, you have what Reed Richards would call an auxetic structure.

The uses for this fabric if it holds up in further testings could be enormous for both military and civilian use. Military in that soldiers, bases, and vehicles could be interwoven with this fabric that could save lives from road-side bombs, suicide bombings, and gunfire.

Civilian uses could entail better bullet-proof vests for cops, hurricane and tornado resistant houses, and probably other uses that I am unable to foresee at this time.