At first glance, "d3o" looks like slab of putty or a piece of Play Doh, easily pulled or squeezed into a multitude of shapes.

But, hit it with a mallet, or a hammer, or a baseball bat, and everything changes.

Instead of splattering all over the room, d3o tenses up, in the same way as a body builder would firm up his abdominal muscles after inviting someone to punch him in the stomach, and the force of the blow is absorbed.

So successful is the light-weight material at protecting against harm that it has been incorporated into a host of sports gear, including ski suits, shin pads and motorcycle gloves.

Snowboarders can buy d3o-lined woollen beanie hats, while riot police in the US are trying out gloves with d3o-reinforced knuckles.

Sewn into ski suits, the material helped several American skiers glide towards gold at last year's Winter Olympics in Turin.

If all that were not impressive enough, it even protects against the pain of being hit over the head with a shovel.