W&J physics students present research in Boston
Two W&J physics students, Tori Merten and Angelina Sams, presented their research at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Boston on February 28, 2012. Their work was an investigation into the origins of the pinning of the edge of a spreading liquid by the nanoscale roughness of a surface. The spreading of a liquid on a surface plays a role in painting, the manufacture of semiconductors, pesticide sprays, paper towels, the proper functioning of the lungs, water striders walking on water, and dish soap: in short, it is a phenomenon of great practical importance. The research was sponsored by the NSF and the Academic Dean's DIDF fund, and involved the use of the college's atomic force microscope, which is capable of imaging the surface at the scale of a few nanometers (billionths of a meter).