This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Gadget Blog . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 16, 2009
Researchers in China, inspired by Mother Nature, have developed postage stamp-sized copper mesh boats, “some of the most buoyant” yet devised. Taking a page from both the shark and the lotus, the team applied a rough and uneven coating to the surface of the mesh, which reduces the vessel’s contact with water. Next, a hydrophobic was applied, which keeps water from penetrating the porous material, “even when they are carrying a load,” according to Dr Qinmin Pan, a chemist from Harbin Institute of Technology. “We believe these boats are some of the strongest ever built – in terms of the mass they can carry.” Possible uses for the superhydrophobic material include microfluidic devices (where minuscule amounts of a liquid are used to carry information on a chip) and miniature aquatic robots. As you know, ensuring replicant diversity is an important part of their plan.
China’s super buoyant, super small copper boats originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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