Self cleaning Lotus leaf imitated in plastic by using a femtosecond laser

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The double structure (pillars with ripples on them) is clearly visible in this polymer surface. Credit: University of Twente
The double structure (pillars with ripples on them) is clearly visible in this polymer surface. Credit: University of Twente

A plastic cup that can be reused without washing it, simply because contamination has no chance to stick to the surface? A self-cleaning surface like that of the leaf of a Lotus plant is ideal for many applications and consumer products.


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All News summaries for January 15, 2007

Scientists take the sharpest image ever made with light

Aug 29, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) and the ESRF in Grenoble (France) has produced the image of an object at the highest resolution ever achieved with X-ray ...

Single photon detectors for telecommunications wavelengths

Aug 29, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
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Aug 28, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(Physorg.com) -- Physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, along with colleagues at institutions in Switzerland and Canada, have observed, for the first time in a single exotic phase, a situation where magnetism and superconductivity ...

The hunt for the Higgs steps up a gear

Aug 28, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
The hunt for the Higgs boson, the most highly sought-after particle in physics, received a boost this month with the release of two new results from the Tevatron particle collider at the US Department of Energy's ...

'Single-Crystal' Superconductors are a Big Step for the Field

Aug 28, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- In key advances for the field of superconductivity, a research group has created versions of a class of widely studied superconducting compounds that are each one continuous crystal, rather ...