WEBVTT

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I'm here to show you

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how something you can't see can be so much fun to look at.

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You're about to experience a new, available

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and exciting technology that's going to make us rethink

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how we waterproof our lives.

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What I have here is a cinder block

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that we've coated half with a nanotechnology spray

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that can be applied to almost any material.

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It's called Ultra-Ever Dry,

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and when you apply it to any material,

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it turns into a superhydrophobic shield.

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So this is a cinder block, uncoated,

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and you can see that it's porous, it absorbs water.

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Not anymore.

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Porous, nonporous.

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So what's superhydrophobic?

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Superhydrophobic is how we measure

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a drop of water on a surface.

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The rounder it is, the more hydrophobic it is,

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and if it's really round, it's superhydrophobic.

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A freshly waxed car, the water molecules slump

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to about 90 degrees.

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A windshield coating is going to give you about 110 degrees.

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But what you're seeing here is 160 to 175 degrees,

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and anything over 150 is superhydrophobic.

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So as part of the demonstration,

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what I have is a pair of gloves,

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and we've coated one of the gloves

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with the nanotechnology coating,

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and let's see if you can tell which one,

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and I'll give you a hint.

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Did you guess the one that was dry?

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When you have nanotechnology and nanoscience,

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what's occurred is that we're able to now

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look at atoms and molecules and actually control them

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for great benefits.

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And we're talking really small here.

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The way you measure nanotechnology is in nanometers,

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and one nanometer is a billionth of a meter,

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and to put some scale to that,

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if you had a nanoparticle that was one nanometer thick,

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and you put it side by side, and you had 50,000 of them,

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you'd be the width of a human hair.

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So very small, but very useful.

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And it's not just water that this works with.

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It's a lot of water-based materials like concrete,

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water-based paint,

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mud,

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and also some refined oils as well.

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You can see the difference.

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Moving onto the next demonstration,

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we've taken a pane of glass and we've coated the outside of it,

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we've framed it with the nanotechnology coating,

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and we're going to pour this green-tinted water inside the middle,

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and you're going to see, it's going to spread out on glass

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like you'd normally think it would,

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except when it hits the coating, it stops,

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and I can't even coax it to leave.

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It's that afraid of the water.

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(Applause)

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So what's going on here? What's happening?

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Well, the surface of the spray coating

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is actually filled with nanoparticles

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that form a very rough and craggly surface.

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You'd think it'd be smooth, but it's actually not.

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And it has billions of interstitial spaces,

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and those spaces, along with the nanoparticles,

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reach up and grab the air molecules,

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and cover the surface with air.

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It's an umbrella of air all across it,

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and that layer of air is what the water hits,

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the mud hits, the concrete hits, and it glides right off.

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So if I put this inside this water here,

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you can see a silver reflective coating around it,

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and that silver reflective coating

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is the layer of air that's protecting the water

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from touching the paddle, and it's dry.

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So what are the applications?

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I mean, many of you right now are probably going through your head.

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Everyone that sees this gets excited, and says,

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"Oh, I could use it for this and this and this."

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The applications in a general sense

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could be anything that's anti-wetting.

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We've certainly seen that today.

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It could be anything that's anti-icing,

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because if you don't have water, you don't have ice.

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It could be anti-corrosion.

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No water, no corrosion.

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It could be anti-bacterial.

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Without water, the bacteria won't survive.

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And it could be things that need to be self-cleaning as well.

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So imagine how something like this

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could help revolutionize your field of work.

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And I'm going to leave you with one last demonstration,

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but before I do that, I would like to say thank you,

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and think small.

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(Applause)

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It's going to happen. Wait for it. Wait for it.

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Chris Anderson: You guys didn't hear about us cutting out the Design from TED? (Laughter)

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[Two minutes later...]

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He ran into all sorts of problems in terms of managing the medical research part.

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It's happening!

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(Applause)