Dive summary:

• Insulation has been mentioned as a possible construction application for Upsalite—invented by accident but refined on purpose at Uppsala University in Sweden.
• Researchers were trying to make a calcium carbonate and tried magnesium instead of calcium because they were working on a drug-delivery material and knew magnesium was already approved for that role.
• They tweaked the process a little, left their new compound in a reaction chamber when they knocked off for the weekend and came back Monday to a material that others had been trying to create for 100 years—so porous that one gram of it would have a total surface area, including all of the pores, of 800 square meters, or 8,611 square feet.

From the article:

Aside from using substantially less energy to create drier environments for producing electronics, batteries and pharmaceuticals, Upsalite could also be used to clean up oil spills, toxic waste and residues. ...