Normally such forces are negligible, but the setae, with their spatula-like tips, maximise the surface area in contact with the wall.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS

You can speed it up to mere hours by pouring the wine form the bottle into a decanter and maximizing the surface area in contact with the atmosphere, but this still takes too long and leaves you with another tricky thing to clean.

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When the antibodies on the surface of the nanotubes come in contact with a target protein, the proteins bind to the tubes and spread them apart a tiny bit.

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To understand the mechanism, Dr Clarke and his collaborators made a synthetic version of the bacterium and discovered that the organism generated a charge, and effected a chemical change, when in direct contact with the mineral surface.

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It will then self-destruct not in flames, its inventors hasten to add, but because contact with the air eventually renders its surface opaque, making it impossible for the laser in a disc player to read the data beneath.

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According to a new computer model, liquid methane in contact with a partially hydrogen-terminated diamond surface at extremely high pressures and temperatures spontaneously forms longer hydrocarbons, and hence the material of crude oil could be formed deep in the earth.

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The other is a non-contact method by detecting intensity of the invisible infrared light that naturally emanates from every surface in this Universe.

FORBES: Body temperature.