About the Cover

The everyday phenomenon of static electricity can be exploited to arrange microparticles into virtually any pattern, such as this horse. After being rubbed across the surface of a silicon dioxide wafer, micron-sized acrylic particles acquired positive charges and adhered to a horse-shaped fluorocarbon-coated region that had become negatively charged. To learn more about using electrostatic forces to design granular materials, turn to the Quick Study by Ignaas Jimidar and Joshua Méndez Harper on page 54.