Extremely water-repellant surfaces were fabricated that can withstand pressures that are 10 times greater than the average pressure a surface would experience resting in a room. The surfaces resist the infiltration of liquid into the nanoscale pockets, staying drier than similar coatings.

An international team of scientists has created the highest static pressure ever achieved in a lab: Using a special high pressure device, the researchers investigated the behavior of the metal osmium at pressures of up to 770 Gigapascals — more than twice the pressure in the inner core of the Earth. Surprisingly, osmium does not change its crystal structure, but the core electrons of the atoms come so close to each other that they can interact.