> The potential to create ultrathin sound absorbing panels has huge implications in building acoustics. As cities get louder, the need for efficient non-intrusive sound mitigation solutions grows. Equally, these lightweight sound absorbing panels could have huge impacts on the travel industry, with any weight saving in planes, cars and trains increasing efficiency in these modes of transport and reducing fuel use and CO2 emissions.

I predict it would become a moral hazard i.e. that people will live less quietly because they reason that the soundproofing means they can be noisy, and the extra noise will slip through, a form of Jevons paradox. I also see the extra efficiency they bring up will also be eaten up by increased use. Again, Jevons paradox rears its head.

I do wonder, however, if it would lead to completely new products, not just better versions of what we have, things we could only imagine at this point.