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Scientists have coated a can of Lynx spray with a material called Vantablack - the blackest material known to man.

Vantablack has such unusual light-absorbing properties that it confuses the human eye, making it very difficult to focus or see any contours.

Regular people can take a look at the Lynx can - created to promote the 'Black' variant of the deodorant spray popular with pubescent males - in a London gallery until August 2.

“I couldn't really focus on it. It was so dark you couldn't work out any detail,” said one man who experienced Vantablack in person.

(Image: surreynanosystems)

”It almost looked like a black hole. It just kind of sucked in all the light,” he added.

The Vantablack material was developed by Surrey Nanosystems and is made up of carbon nanotubes which absorb 99.965% of visible light.

Its light-swallowing capabilities are unlike any other material known to man, so any object coated with it ends up looking more like an abyss than a physical object.

(Image: Lynx)

It took 400 hours to create the Vantablack-coated Lynx can over a four-month period.

When it's not being used for promotional stunts, Vantablack can be used to calibrate cameras used to take photos of the oldest objects in the universe, which requires pointing the camera at something as dark as possible.

"This is a ground-breaking moment for Vantablack as it's the first time we've created a product for consumer viewing, by coating a Lynx can with the blackest material known to man," said Surrey Nanosystems' Ben Jensen.

"We're thrilled to be able to give people the chance to experience the can and it's unique 'black hole' like qualities."