Water Strider Floats on the Water

While normally, the water strider might sink into the water and drown, super-hydrophobic legs allow them to support over 15 times their body weight on the water! Their legs consist of wax spread over super-fine hairs, making water droplets flee for their lives.

Seen below is an example of a water droplet on a super-hydrophobic surface.

Seen here is a drop of water on a hydrophobic surface. Image: Xiao Cheng Zeng

The problem was how to recreate the super-hydrophobic materials we see in nature. After thousands of experiments, a group of scientists think they’ve solved the problem. They goal now, is to make use of this recent discovery in our modern world. The belief is that super-hydrophobic surfaces could be applied in fabrics, and other surfaces to make them self-cleaning.

Or, perhaps, a day where torrents of tiny robots with super-hydrophobic legs paddle to take over the world.