> The [metal floats because they use] bursts of lasers to "etch" the surfaces of metals with intricate micro- and nanoscale patterns that trap air and make the surfaces superhydrophobic, or water repellent.
And will not work in the real life, because they are not paying attention to biology, just copying it without understanding the ecological processes.
Anything with tiny pores put on the sea will either be covered in life in weeks, or will need anti-fouling painting to avoid rust and life (distroying the effect), or this pores will be filled with lime and mud in no time. A ship hull that is not easily cleanable and can't be polished is creating many new problems.
I could be wrong but translating this to the real life applications seems really complicated to implement. Specially when you can just create a sealed metal box filled with multiple air cameras or a buoy.
They could put it on planes so the material floats and becomes easier to find in the case of the plane crashing into the sea. Doesn't need to work for long, only long enough for it to be found.
The main issue is that this only works on things that are tiny enough that a micro-layer of surface air can substantially affect their buoyancy. It's a cool trick, and I'm sure it has uses, but it's not going to do a thing for planes and ships. It'd be like trying to float a Buick by tying a party balloon to it.
Sadly is useless even for that. They will not found a silvery small object in a sea full of silvery small fishes and waves. If you really want to have a chance to find something in the sea you need an orange decent-sized buoy at day, or an intermitent light at night.
> Anything with tiny pores put on the sea will either be covered in life in weeks
My question with this, is that if an air bubble is formed against the surface of the material and thus the water is not touching the surface.. how does the life inside the water attach itself to the surface which it does not touch?
Marine larvae have legs with strong claws and chaetas and secrete several natural cements. They could just displace or peel the air bubble. Moreover, having tiny pores would grant a stronger grip to the hull against being washed by sea currents and cleaning hoses.
terry pratchett's discworld series had hydrophobic wizards raised on dehydrated water that were so hydrophobic that the air around them could displace large amounts of water allowing for water travel.
Cool. It would be even cooler if they could make an "aerophobic" material so it floats in the air. Put some of it on the bottom side of a skateboard and you have a hoverboard (hopefully!).
It's fun to daydream about, but even if you could somehow warp surface tension to hold bubbles of vacuum against a surface, displacing air gives you less than 1/750th as much lift as displacing water.
Not the same principle really as these things float on water rather than in it. Things on water float at the boundary with the lighter air. If you want to do the same thing on air you should do it at the boundary with something else, even lighter.
If you are completely engulfed in air you're like a diver underwater achieving neutral buoyancy, the same kind of thing as a perfectly balanced balloon. So you're floating in air rather than on air.
> Not the same principle really as these things float on water rather than in it.
Huh? Half the article talks about how they maintain buoyancy while submerged and why that's important.
You don't need a boundary, and it wouldn't help you if you did. You still need to displace the same amount of air.
The only way on/in makes a difference is if you have some way to prevent the fluid from going around you. You'd have to be tightly jammed inside a tube for that.
> The [metal floats because they use] bursts of lasers to "etch" the surfaces of metals with intricate micro- and nanoscale patterns that trap air and make the surfaces superhydrophobic, or water repellent.
Neat!