Aerogels a short history

Aerogel was first created by Steven Kistler in 1931, as a result of a bet with Charles Learned over who could replace the liquid inside a jam (jelly) jar with gas without causing shrinkage. The first results were silica gels. Aerogel can be made of many different materials; Kistler's work involved aerogels based on silica, alumina, chromia, and tin oxide. Carbon aerogels were first developed in the early 1990s.

Just What is Aerogel

Well up until a couple of days ago I had never heard of Aerogel.
I came across it on a tech blog site with a link to a video on UTUBE. I watched the video and became fascinated.
Below is what Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia had initially to say:

Aerogel is a low-density solid-state material derived from gel in which the liquid component of the gel has been replaced with gas. The result is an extremely low density solid with several remarkable properties, most notably its effectiveness as an insulator. It is nicknamed frozen smoke, solid smoke or blue smoke due to its semi-transparent nature and the way light scatters in the material; however, it feels like expanded polystyrene to the touch.