ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Researchers from the University of Rochester have reportedly crafted a metallic structure that doesn't sink and won't stay in the water.
No matter how much it is punctured.
The inspiration? Diving bell spiders and fire ants.
The lab uses lasers to "etch" micro and nanoscale patterns to trap air and make surfaces water repellant.
Unfortunately, researchers found the surfaces can lose their hydrophobic properties over time. So, they leaned on spiders and fire ants which can trap air in their systems to survive long periods of time underwater.
The lasers have sped up the process, making it more feasible for a commercial-level scale.
Bill and Melinda Gates are backing the venture which could be used for building ships and even floating cities, Business Insider reports.
"Regardless [of] how much it's damaged or punctured, it will still be able to stay afloat," Chunlei Guo, the study's chief researcher, told Business Insider.
The project is not only being funding by the Gates Foundation but also by the U.S. Army and the National Science Foundation.
Researchers are hopeful that with creating a method to keep the water away through carving water-resistant grooves into an aluminum disk, the metal won't suffer the same fate as the Titanic. The gap it created is small enough to keep water from going inside and allows the metal to float.
The Titanic reportedly sunk after the ship filled with water through the flooding of the compartments, causing it to sink. The ship was thought to be unsinkable and impenetrable, but its developers didn't foresee the potential dangers of the compartments being punctured with the iceberg.
Researchers have even tested the metal by putting a weight on it for two months and drilling holes in the disks. It still floated to the top.
The researchers said floating cities could be made from the metal as long as the surface area was big enough to counterbalance the weight.
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