Staying dry in a world covered in water

The opening gif of the water droplets bouncing cleanly off of the surface of the laser-etched metal is mesmerizing. (check the linked article to see what I'm talking about, Blogger doesn't allow for easy embedding of animated gifs, sadly).

We talk in chemistry class about materials being hydrophobic or hydrophillic because of the molecule's polarity. Polar things, see, will dissolve (or at least attract to) equally polar things. Non-polar things the same, as well.

But then you get to the weirdness that is nano-texturing, and all that polar or nonpolar stuff goes right out the window. It's such an odd thought to understand that macroscopic properties have little to no effect on the nano- scale.

But it's really cool to read about.