London (England) – A new super foam promises to protect athletes from impact and its inventor proved the point by taking a full force shovel hit to the head.  Called D3O, the orange substance is soft and malleable, like Silly Putty, but becomes rigid when accelerated.  D3O can be fashioned into clothing and in this case, a protective beanie that withstood a shovel hit from Sky News reporter Derek Tedder.

In the video, D3O inventor Richard Palmer takes two hits to his head and also several hits to his knees which were also protected by D3O knee pads.  The substance has been around for a few years and several companies are using it to make gloves and other clothing for skiers, motorcycle riders and other athletes.

According to the company, the molecules in D3O easily slip past each other when slowly pushed, but lock into place when they experience acceleration.  On YouTube, there are several other videos of people wearing body suits of the stuff and running into walls and taking karate blows.

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