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"I received a nice letter the other day from the Dalai Lama. He had read 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. It is about a computer at a Tibetan monastery."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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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. |
| 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
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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
| Skyline Robotics Instantiates Heinlein's 'Window Willie' Skyscraper Robot |
| Melting Permafrost Endangers Infrastructure |
| MIT And Rice Create Blade Runner Photo Analysis |
| Whisper Aero Ultraquiet Electric Aviation |
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'THE red tennis robot scooted desperately across the court...'
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'Do you know what window washing used to cost by the hour?'
'Once the target is confirmed, it uses an IR laser to send a coded signal back to the parent, clearing it to attack.'
'I filled your bullet hole with flesh putty and the lattice.'
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.'
'From the tower's huge octagonal base radiate wide silvery strips...'
'It was about five feet long... a black bullet head and red camera eyes.'
'The Law Society has strict rules on the use of pseudo-intelligent software...'
