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Science

The Best Frying Pan Ever 59

Posted by michael from the omelette-with-a-stick-of-butter-doesn't-stick-either dept.
caulfield writes "Nano-tech saves the day again! Czech out the newest non-stick surface. Applications include: faster submarines, effecient raincoats, and coffee-proof keyboards."
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The Best Frying Pan Ever More

The Best Frying Pan Ever

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  • Czech out the newest non-stick surface.

    Is there any particular reason that the original poster mentioned the name of the Czech Republic, rather than the English word "check"? At first I thought it may have been some kind of pun on research done in Prague or something, but no -- a quick scan over the BBC article and I see no mention of any places other than the UK and USA.

    Simple, typical Slashdot spelling, or some kind of dangling reference?

    THE WORLD MUST KNOW.

  • Sheesh. uncoated iron, steel, tinned copper.

  • not just subs... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @04:55PM (#7185846)
    but any watercraft. And not just watercraft, but anything that would be more efficient with less friction. If they can get the cost down to that of, say, automotive paint, then they'll really have something with huge market impact in an incredible number of industries.
    • Actually, what the nanocoating does is prevent the water from flowing down into the spaces between the spikes, but (if I'm reading this correctly) the flow friction is a combination of the teflon surface and the air flowing between the nanospikes. Hence, if you grew microcrystals on your car, it air would flow around and through the spikes, and you would slow your car down significantly. In addition, the most significant negative forces on your car (and in many flow situations) are drag from turbulence an
    • Imagine that!

      Of course, you'd have to make the instructions for use idiot-proof, which is where the *really* amazing science happens ... ;)

  • Reality Check! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 0x69 ( 580798 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @05:35PM (#7186029) Journal
    Okay, the bottom of your fry pan is covered with jillions of those teflon microspikes, so your eggs can't possibly stick. But will all those microspikes (and the air trapped between 'em) conduct heat well enough for your eggs to cook decently?

    Now comes time to take up your eggs, and you slip your trusty pancake flippy in to move 'em to your plate. Did you just damage a bunch of those skinny, fragile-looking microspikes?

    Next, you put the microspike coating on your boat's hull. How long does it take to degrade it to uselessness? Lots of microorganisms might find the little spaces between those spikes to be a cozy home...you've got a not-so-special familiar kind of slimy slipperyness once they displace the air in there.
    • The raincoat idea ... we already have completely waterproof raincoats. [clara.net] What people really want is a surface that is more breathable, too. Does this have the potential to be better than Goretex? [workwear.de]

    • Re:Reality Check! (Score:2, Informative)

      by BobGarcia ( 603334 )
      Couple of points...

      1) The posting title notwithstanding, cooking applications are not mentioned as an application for this material; however, Teflon is used to coat heat exchangers [corrview.com]. I think your eggs would do just fine. TEFLON -- it's not just for breakfast anymore.

      2) Little living bits don't stick to Teflon. It's used in medical apps -- and those heat exchangers -- for just that reason.

    • Ask any cook worth his/her pinch of salt and they'll tell you that non-stick pans are not good for a lot of things. Specifically, any time you want to cook a meat to a nice brown color and then make a sauce, you specifically don't want a non-stick pan. You actually want little bits of the meat to stick to your pan as you cook.

      Why, you ask? Because, those little bits that stick to the pan undergo something called the Maillard reaction [exploratorium.edu] (similar to sugars caramelizing) which results in deliciously complex

  • Even better use (Score:4, Funny)

    by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @06:44PM (#7186449)

    three-words: high speed condoms.
    I'm looking forward to condoms made from this because There's two things I've never gotten used to and that's the smell of burning rubber and screaming women.
  • Would these teflon micropoints be robust under wear or heat? For example can I make a downhil Ski out of them? What about as a bearing lubricant or coating? would the forces or heat involve crush/melt these tiny points?

    I dont know. I'm just asking.

    Obviously if they were bigger objects then their bulk points of failure and ability to dissipate heat would not be adequate (for teflon) but perhaps on the molecular scale these things have non-bulk shear strengths and can rapidly shed heat given a huge sur

  • Note that the substance being used is Teflon, so as to start with a good non-stick surface and make it even less sticky by crafting its surface into "nano-spikes"

    Now Teflon is poisonous to birds in quantities small enough that pet birdscan be killed just by fumes given off by Teflon cookware in normal use [theaviary.com].

    It can also cause flu-like symptoms in humans (see above link).

    I would imagine (but don't know) that if you form the Teflon into "nano-spikes", you increase the service area and thus can expect more fum

    • Re:Sniff this post (Score:4, Informative)

      by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @07:28PM (#7186692)
      I didn't know that. For another source on hazard to humans, check this [yahoo.com] out. Yikes...
      • It doesn't stop there. Worse of all, I think, are those "no stick cooking sprays." Ever bother to read the ingredients of PAM? The stuff has cooking oil with TEFLON held in a liquid suspension!

        I can't stand it. My father uses it to cook bisquits but the guy is 80 and I doubt anything he eats now is going to shorten his life. But I can taste and smell that shit when it's been sprayed onto a pan, and if you can taste it there's no doubt you're eating it.

        I think it's hilarious how crap like this is put into

        • NONSENSE!

          Ever bother to read the ingredients of PAM???????:
          Canola oil, grain alcohol from corn (added for clarity), lecithin from soybeans (prevents sticking), and propellant.
          (c) copyright international home foods
          Parsippany, NJ 07054
          yeah, it tastes nasty, but man, don't spew ignorant shit like that
          • My bad... try mazola. Methyl Silicone
            • yum yum, a lubricant and also used for insulators in some capacitors and transformers. Non-toxic and inert in the body ( we hope) according to MSDS, but I wouldn't really want to be eating that crap.

  • Shark skin (Score:3, Informative)

    by itwerx ( 165526 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @07:00PM (#7186559) Homepage
    Sharks have been taking advantage of this for ages. [sharky-jones.com] :)
  • I work for UCLA's MAE (Mech & Aerospace Eng) Dept. Prof. Kim's a pretty cool guy and it's great to see his work featured on Slashdot! w00t!11!!
  • A surface treatment was discovered in Isreal last year that uses an arrangement of spheres. The REALLY cool thing about it is that by spacing the spheres the right way to tune the wavelength, you can change the color. V-cute
  • have they solved the problem of you to get the non-stick surface to stick to the frying pan?
  • If they can get all those tiny needles.... wouldn't the surface be smoother WITHOUT the needles, and therfore have less friction?

  • Nanotech? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MarkusQ ( 450076 ) on Saturday October 11, 2003 @12:28AM (#7187889) Journal

    Nano-tech saves the day again!

    This isn't nanotech. While it may be a nifty advance in materials technology, it's still produced "in the large" by relatively conventional methods. Calling this sort of thing nanotechnology is like calling someone a computer scientist because they know how to send e-mail, or perhaps calling an abacus a "high speed digital computer".

    Yes, it is technology, and yes, it involves very small things, but the technology isn't at the nanoscale, even if in some sense the product is.

    -- MarkusQ

  • If you think about submarines in a marine environment, the defence department will be very excited to hear about this," CJ Kim, an engineer at the University of California at Los Angeles, told BBC World Service's Discovery programme

    On the other hand... [vttbots.com]

    -
  • It seems that for the nanoturf to work, there needs to be air surrounding the spikes so that a minimum solid-liquid interface occurs. If you attempt to use this principle with a submarine, the air pockets are going to shrink significantly as depth increases. Also, corrosion loves pointy things.

    • Re:Anything but submarines (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In water the spikes would hold a layer of water around the skin and the effect would still work. Shark skin has similar spikes but on a much larger scale. Speedo has even made some body swimsuits based on these principles.
  • wouldn't it be a pain trying to type on them? I imagine it would be like handling wet soap, your fingers would slip everytime they try to push down the keys.
  • Get a really nice cast iron frying pan (or for eggs and pancakes, a flat griddle.

    Pour a handful of table salt and a tablespoon of olive oil into it. Heat it up until it's hot but not quite frying. Take it off the heat.

    Grab a few pieces of paper towel, and fold over a few times until you have a nice thick paper towel pad.

    Sand the heck out of the frying pan's surface with the hot oil/salt mixture.

    Rinse well, and immediately put back on the heat to evaporate the remaining water (to prevent the pan rusting)
  • Wow, what a world-changing revolution!

    "with [regard to] "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New Yo

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