This is really cool: reusable nanowires that absorb oil, not water

[thewayne]

This is the kind of tech that I really like. The article says that you can lay it on top of water for days, pick it up, and it's dry. It also has application for water purification.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oil-paper-0530.html

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/31/1221205

Comments

[silveradept]

Cool. In large enough sheets, these could be deployed as emergency measures should we have another Exxon Valdez problem. Would certainly get thanks from the wildlife around if we made these standard safety components on tankers and drill platforms.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

We may not have big spills like Valdez or the guy who smacked into the Golden Gate Bridge pylon, but smaller spills happen all the time. I think it could see a lot of use.

The Slashdot comments had an interesting line. This one poster has a boat, apparently Coast Guard regulations require that you have such a blanket in your bilge for fuel spills. He said it wasn't cheap, and disposal is basically shipping it off to the landfill. So this has immediate application for most boats, that's a huge market right there.

If it's economically-feasible, something that I didn't get a feel for from the article, it's going to make MIT a LOT of money.

[silveradept]

MIT, or whomever they license the technology to for manufacture. It's definitely going to be a big moneymaker, assuming it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to manufacture. I also liked the idea of the cloth being used as a water filtration system, assuming that it can capture and hold hostile microorganisms as well as contaminants.