A team of researchers says they have created the most water-repellent surface ever, challenging existing ideas about how friction works. Known as a self-assembled monolayer (SAM), the ingenious new surface, which is assembled at the molecular level, has the potential to impact hundreds of commercial and industrial applications, including de-icing techniques, maritime technologies, space exploration, and even ultra-slippery cookware.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-023-01346-3
Nature article.
It should be punishable by fine for science journalists to write about a science paper without citing the paper — I couldn’t find it linked anywhere in the article but do have some content blockers so perhaps it was just hidden by those. At any rate, interesting findings.
The ghost of Carl Sagan should visit the article’s author and treat him or her to an evening à la Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.