This neat arrangement was made simply by letting wet bristles dry, click the link left for more images (Image: Joanna Aizenberg/Harvard University/Science)
A team of US engineers has found a use for the way wet hair tends to tangle as it dries. They used the same process to turn an array of tiny flexible polymer bristles into exquisite microscopic spirals that could be used to create a mini capture and release system.
Boaz Pokroy and colleagues at Harvard University discovered it is possible to make the spiral arrangements by submerging flexible polymer bristles in a liquid that is then evaporated. The twists can even tightly grip tiny spheres, and be made to later release them on demand.
See a gallery of the microscopic spirals
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Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1165607)
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