Menisci are all around us, "but we don't notice them because they're so small, only a few millimeters in height," said mathematician David Hu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "But if you're a creature that's much smaller than that, those slopes "are like frictionless mountains," said Hu. "Plus, it's slippery."
Now, Hu and coworker John Bush have done the math to explain how nearly weightless water walkers find the traction to ascend a wall of water several times their height. Such obstacles, which are almost invisible to humans, may surround a leaf floating in a stream or a stone on the riverbank.
An article on the work appears in the Sept. 29 issue of the journal Nature.
According to Bush, the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, may be "of interest to people working in nanotechnology, because they, too, are concerned with problems at very small scales."
Read the full release from MIT at www.mit.edu/newsoffice/
Media Contacts: Elizabeth Thomson, MIT, (617) 258-5402, thomson@mit.edu
Leslie Fink, NSF, (703) 292-5395, lfink@nsf.gov
NSF-PR 05-171
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of nearly $5.47 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 40,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. The NSF also awards over $200 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
Receive official NSF news electronically through the e-mail delivery and notification system, MyNSF (formerly the Custom News Service). To subscribe, visit http://www.nsf.gov/mynsf/ and fill in the information under "new users".
Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/
Journal
Nature