Building a Better Fog Harp

On arid coastlines, fog rolling in can serve as an important water source. Today’s fog collectors often use tight mesh nets. The narrow holes help catch tiny water particles, but they also clog easily. A few years ago, researchers suggested an alternative design — a fog harp inspired by coastal redwoods — that used closely spaced vertical wires to capture water vapor. At small scales, this technique worked well, but once scaled up to a meter-long fog harp, the strings would stick together once wet — much the way wet hairs cling to one another.

The group has iterated on their design with a new hybrid that maintains the fog harp’s close vertical spacing but adds occasional cross-wires to stabilize. Laboratory tests are promising, with the new hybrid fog harp collecting water with 2 – 8 times the efficiency of either a conventional mesh or their original fog harp. The team notes that even higher efficiencies are possible with electrification. (Image credit: A. Parrish; research credit: J. Kaindu et al.; via Ars Technica)

#condensation #elastocapillarity #fluidDynamics #fog #fogCollection #physics #science #surfaceTension

Why do I refer to the bike as a "lamplighter"? In the old days lamp lighting was a job. A lamp lighter went around in the evening usually with a ladder and lit up each gas powered lamp post in turn.

Some of the people doing this job had specialist bikes made that were very tall. Then they could just cycle between each one, hold on (or lean) and light them without needing the ladder.

The design here is classic lamplighter bike style, albeit scaled down. A real lamplighter would be over 7 foot.

It's sunflower season starting here in Ireland at least 🌻🌻🌻. David Zinn shows how they can be cultivated on pavements using chalk, water and a large dose of whimsy ...

#DavidZinn #StreetArt #Art