Winter approaches, and the first few frosty mornings make many of us think about scraping ice from our car windows. If you worked at University of Pittsburgh, however, you might just see dollar signs etched into the frost. Researchers their have combined a nanoparticle based super hydrophobic coating with a silicone resin solution to mimic the water-repelling properties of lotus leaves. So, what does that mean to you and me? Watch this video and I bet you'll be able to connect the dots.

What do you get when you combine one part diffusion filtration, one part chemisorptive filtration, and one part physisorptive filtration? Adsorptive Filtration, of course. Puzzled? Tune in to Thermo.TV to learn what's going on behind the scenes, and how active sorbent surface area can make or beak your filtration efficiency.

The guys and gals at MIT are at it again....cooking up some new magic with their surface chemistry mambo-jambo. This little trick caught our eye, and we think that the die hard surface chemists out there (you know who you are) will be equally as impressed. MIT's description for their smart surface technology (as if they really needed to call it "smart") is in one simple word "eloquent." Flip a switch and a formerly hydrophobic material becomes hydrophilic. Pass me the remote..I gotta see this.

ThermoPore has taken to the airways with seven new feature flicks for your viewing pleasure. We're not sure if ThermoPore's Ken Milam is going to make it to the Oscars...but he's gotten at least one call from his mother letting him know that she's proud! Tune in and watch Ken demystify capillary systems and filtration theory - we need to pay for some additional acting lessons.

This is a way cool video that demonstrates the influence of an object's hydrophobic/hydrophilic surface property with water. As simplistic as this sounds, the various types of video captured by the folks at MIT showcase surface energy/surface tension in action. Grab your popcorn. We give this flick two thumbs up.

So, do you think that ski jacket is going to keep you warm and dry when you go over the tips on your next double black diamond run? Okay, it probably will. But, will it stay clean when your buddy drops his slope side chilly dog on the same apparel? Well, it would if it offered the same properties as the Lotus plant. This weeks featured fight - Lotus vs. Honey. Let's get it on!

Super hydrophobic coatings - here's another example of Hydrophobicity Gone Wild. Most impressive was the identification of the air/water interface that is found at the surface of the coated solid. Cudos to Neil Shircliffe for a well documented video that makes material science simple.