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"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
- Gregory Benford
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| Water Repellent Surface | ||
| A surface that water flows over without sticking at all. |
The Fremen were tribal people who lived in the desert that covered the surface of the planet Dune. All moisture was precious; even the water in a person's body was carefully conserved after death.
| A splashing sounded on her left. She looked down the shadowy line of Fremen, saw Stilgar with Paul standing beside him and the watermasters emptying their load into the pool through a flowmeter. The meter was a round gray eye above the pool's rim. She saw its glowing pointer move as the water flowed through it, saw the pointer stop at thirty-three liters, seven and three-thirty-seconds drachms.
Superb accuracy in water measurement, Jessica thought. And she noted that the walls of the meter trough held no trace of moisture after the water's passage. The water flowed off those walls without binding tension. She saw a profound clue to Fremen technology in the simple fact: they were perfectionists. |
| Technovelgy from Dune,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Putnam in 1965 Additional resources -
|
How did the Fremen do it? One possible approach involves imitating plants with surfaces that have low binding tension - water just slides off. Such surfaces are made from a hydrophobic substance - usually wax-like in character. But "bumps" make it work even better:
Water cannot enter the cavities created by these bumps because the surface is hydrophobic, so the drop is left stranded on a pincushion of spikes. The gap between these spikes means that the drop is mostly in contact with the air, with only a very small part of it actually touching the leaf. This combination of repulsive chemical interactions and the physical morphology of the leaf creates a surface that is capable of efficiently repelling water and generating astonishing hydrophobic behaviour.
(From Water droplets make an impact)
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Dune
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Dune
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Water Repellent Surface-related
news articles:
- Water-Repellent 'Bumpy' Glass Mimics Lotus Leaves
- Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surface
- LiquiGlide Coating, Your New Condiment Lubricant
- MIT's New Super Slippery Surface
- Laser Etching Makes Metal Super-Hydrophobic
- New Super Slippery Surface Better Than Nature's
| Time Crystals Can Now Be Seen Directly |
| China Steals Strato Airship Design From Google App Engine |
| Biohybrid Jellyfish Explore The Ocean |
| 3D-Printed Exoskeleton Learns From Your Hand |
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
