When they are painted onto a surface, this arrangement forces them into a kind of checkerboard pattern which makes it much harder for barnacles and mussels to stick, according to David Williams, who is in charge of commercialising the idea at AkzoNobel, a multinational chemical company.

ECONOMIST: Monitor: Reducing the barnacle bill | The

One of the most basic parts of that arrangement, though, is immediately obvious from the picture of spots in the pattern.

ECONOMIST: The 2011 Nobel prizes