Zeng’s group discovered that ice grows differently on absorbent vs. water-repellent surfaces, demonstrating that a gust of air can blow away ice that forms on the latter. Their findings suggest that applying water-repellent coatings to windshields before winter storms – or engineering surfaces that inherently repel water – could enable a strong breeze to handle the burden of ice removal.

　　More information can be found at

　　Liu, J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712829114 (2017).