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"Oil Strider" Device Mimics Water Strider Insects
LilaG writes "Who hasn't marveled at the ability of water bugs to skate along the surface of lakes and ponds? Now materials scientists in China have taken a cue from water striders and created a device that can coast along the surface between oil and water. The tricky part was figuring out how to make an oil-repelling surface that worked underwater. It came down to coating copper wires with copper oxide microstructures that look like flowers made up of nanopetals. Scientists think such coatings could enable robots that clean up oil spills, bug-proof car windshields, and ship hulls that don't build up barnacles."
Your childhood was not awesome.
Or may be, he could skate along the surface of water too, and finds nothing marvelous about it. You never know who you talk to, on the Internet.
In oil spills, the oil floats on top of the wate, not the other way around. How can this help clean up oil spills?
If you read the summary, you'd learn that these things stride on the border between the oil and water, not between the oil and air - they're in the perfect place to clean up the oil.
If you clicked on the link, you could have even just looked at the picture. Then you wouldn't have had to read anything. Slashdot Posters: Lowering Expectations Daily.
could enable robots that clean up oil spills
Yeah yeah how great for humani..
bug-proof car windshields
Oh glorious age of science!
I know I'm a terrible person.. but as someone who does a fair bit of highway driving.. I really hope they roll that one out. While they are at it.. paint up my hood and bumper too (much harder to clean).
And the picture clearly shows that the thing walks on an oil water air construct, where the oil is at the bottom, hence your parents question :D
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Jesus, is that you?
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!