Hello!

We are Dr. Bharat Bhushan, director of the Nanoprobe Laboratory for Bio- and Nanotechnology and Biomimetics at THE Ohio State University, and with me is Dr. Philip Brown, senior researcher in my group. We do research that turns nature into nanotechnology. We use advanced microscopes and equipment to study friction, lubrication, and wear on high-tech surfaces at a nanometer level. Most recently, Phil and I developed a mesh that captures oil but lets water through (study). Phil has already answered some of your questions in a previous reddit post.

At the heart of my work is a drive to understand why natural materials work the way they do - from the shiny and dirt-repelling wings of the Giant Blue Morpho butterfly ( [study](http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2012/sm/c2sm26655e#!divAbstr= act)), to the air-trapping eggbeater texture of a Brazilian fern (study). My group and I then try to figure out ways to take the desirable properties of these natural materials and translate them into solutions for problems in our world. Check out the links below to some of our other work, and get ready to AUA!

We will be back at 1pm EDT (10 am PDT, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions.

**Edit: VERIFICATION

**Edit 2: Thank you all so much for your great questions! We had way more fun than expected, and we appreciate the insights! Have a great day, all!

nanoparticles for oil detection (study)

self-cleaning windows (patent info).

how hair interacts with conditioner on a nanometer level (study 1, study 2)

artificial skin (study) for animal-free cosmetics testing.

Biomimetics: Bioinspired Hierarchical-Structured Surfaces for Green Science and Technology