| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"habshi" |
| Date: |
30 Aug 2005 06:17:29 AM |
| Object: |
Scientists invent mist free specs and windows |
What will horror movie makers do if they dont have foggy rainy days to show?
guardian
Scientists discover mist opportunity
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Tuesday August 30, 2005
The Guardian
Scientists have cracked a problem that popular opinion suggests they suffer from most: steamed-up
spectacles.
The solution, they found, lies in nanotechnology, the science of the vanishingly small. By applying
an ultra-thin coating of particles to sheets of glass and other transparent surfaces, scientists at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology made them permanently fog-proof.
Glasses steam up and car windscreens fog over when they are cold and meet warm, moist air, making
thousands of tiny droplets of water condense on to the surface. The droplets scatter light as it
passes through them, producing the misty, blurred effect.
The coating, a thin sandwich of transparent plastic and layers of silica particles too small to be
seen with the naked eye, works by attracting water more strongly than the glass does. This flattens
each of the water droplets, smearing them over the surface in a see-through layer.
"The coating basically causes water that hits the surfaces to develop a sustained sheeting effect,
and that prevents fogging," said Michael Rubner, a materials scientist who led the research.
Dr Rubner, who announced the work at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington DC
yesterday, said the coatings could be used on spectacles, ski goggles, car windscreens and even
bathroom mirrors. "Our coatings have the potential to provide the first permanent solution to the
fogging problem."
They might find more bizarre applications. By patterning solid surfaces with the coating, Dr Rubner
hopes to produce water-attracting channels that recreate a trick perfected by the Namib desert
beetle. It uses inclined channels on its back to condense low-lying fog which trickles forward as
drinking water.
Two car manufacturers and the US military have expressed a strong interest in the fog-free coating,
which should be available commercially within five years, he said.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Scientists invent mist free specs and windows |
30 Aug 2005 09:53:12 AM |
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In sci.physics habshi <habshi@anony.net> wrote:
What will horror movie makers do if they dont have foggy rainy days to show?
Idiot.
guardian
Scientists discover mist opportunity
Scientists discover wax.
<snip crap>
--
Jim Pennino
Remove .spam.sux to reply.
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| User: "Uncle Al" |
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| Title: Re: Scientists invent mist free specs and windows |
30 Aug 2005 11:09:49 AM |
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habshi wrote:
[snip crap]
Idiot wog. Glass surface-modified with quaternized reactive silanes
is 30+ years old. Glass rubbed with soap is at least 300 years old.
--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf
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| User: "Jan Panteltje" |
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| Title: Re: Scientists invent mist free specs and windows |
30 Aug 2005 12:06:15 PM |
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On a sunny day (Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:09:49 -0700) it happened Uncle Al
<UncleAl0@hate.spam.net> wrote in <431484CD.B31678B3@hate.spam.net>:
habshi wrote:
[snip crap]
Idiot wog. Glass surface-modified with quaternized reactive silanes
is 30+ years old. Glass rubbed with soap is at least 300 years old.
Well, considering he has it from nytimes.com today, why not contact them
with that text?
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