This is fantastic. In this video, we see slow-motion video of water droplets falling on a dusty surface. Because the dust is made up of a special metamaterial, the drops become locked into different shapes as they bounce.
Usually water forms a spherical drop, since its molecules pull together via cohesion. When a droplet hits a surface, it will deform, but then it will attempt to pull itself into that lovely sphere again. This time, scientists have cooked up a little something different for the water by dropping them on hydrophobic powder (powder that repels water molecules), which also forms nanostructures. So when different drops fall on the surface, they become locked into the deformed shapes they took as they rebounded off the surface.
We see them take shapes depending on their viscosity and whether or not they ejected a bit of water as they bounced. Some turn into bowling pin shapes, and some into ice cream cones.
Via Physics Central.
