Hydrophobic Materials Super materials Hydrophobic Materials What does hydrophobic mean? How about arachnophobia? – now apply your logic… if a material is hydrophobic what does it mean? Do butterflies get wet?

It was developed by Kripa Varanasi, a mechanical engineer at MIT, and his colleagues, who used a high-speed camera to film a silicone wafer with a highly water-repellent coating being sprayed with water. The scientists found that droplets that hit the surface evenly and then spread out symmetrically actually spent more time in contact with the surface than those that hit the surface unevenly. So, the researchers created a new textured surface with small ridges that broke up the drops unevenly. The resulting smaller drops took less time spreading out on the surface before bouncing off of it. [Video: Hydrophobic Sand Underwater] But it turns out the scientists weren't the first to discover this waterproofing strategy; nature had beaten them to it. "We discovered that both the wings of the Morpho butterfly (Morpho didius) and the leaves of the nasturtium plant (Tropaeolum majus L.) have multiple superhydrophobic ridges, or veins, on a similar scale to our macro-textured surfaces," the authors write in the research article describing the new technique today (Nov. 20) in the journal Nature.

What do you think? What materials would you want to be hydrophobic? What things would be useless if they were hydrophobic? How does it work? What was this technology inspired by? The new materials could have multiple applications. In addition to waterproofing sporting gear and clothing, the new approach could be used for keeping airplane wings from becoming icy and improving the aerodynamics of minuscule robots flying in the rain Also talk about surface tension and things walking on water?

Source material/ Links http://news.discovery.com/tech/nanotechnology/butterflies-inspire-ultra- waterproof-materials-131120.htm http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25004942 Silly things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTkefJHfC0 How it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3jA40arq9Y