The complexity of the hierarchical structures and their functionality in biological organisms surpasses all abiotic natural surfaces: even superhydrophobicity is restricted in nature to living organisms and was probably a key evolutionary step with the invasion of terrestrial habitats some 350 450 million years ago in plants and insects.
Then there's Clodagh, the veteran Manhattan designer who is an expert on natural surfaces.
This one-name artist begins her paintings by rubbing canvases applied to trees, rocks and other natural surfaces.
For most of the sport's history, outdoor tennis was played on the natural surfaces and colors of grass and clay.
Synthetic racing surfaces, which routinely drain better than natural surfaces and cause fewer fatal injuries, were increasingly installed at racetracks during the 21st century.
Mr. Benepe has said the surfaces are safe to play on; have environmental advantages over natural surfaces, which require pesticides, watering and mowing; and are cheaper and easier to maintain than are grass fields.
The expansive growth of benign neoplasms or the more destructive growth of malignant tumours may erode natural surfaces and lead to the development of ulcers and bleeding and create conditions that favour infection.
Unlike mirrors, most natural surfaces are rough on the scale of the wavelength of light, and, as a consequence, parallel incident light rays are reflected in many different directions, or diffusely.
Even so it is the nature of drop-in pitches elsewhere generally to improve as matches wear on, as indeed it is for many natural surfaces: the days of always batting regardless are long since gone and sides now see bowling first as just as important in establishing a hold on a match as supposed scoreboard pressure.
"Imagine if you had leg exoskeletons where you could traverse across very, very irregular natural surfaces, natural terrains with a dramatically reduced metabolism and an increased speed while you are jumping over logs and hopping from rock to rock, going up and down mountains," he says, conjuring up a scene of a bionic, human gazelle.
But even the best of these do not perform as well as nature's superstars, such as the Morpho butterfly, the leaves of the lotus plant or the garden nasturtium.Scientists investigating such natural surfaces have found they exhibit patterns and structures on more than one scale what is known as hierarchical structuring.
