it's interesting and has some obvious uses for sure, but I wonder about the long term viability for iron based metals. aluminum won't rust, so laser etching a pattern that repels water makes sense. but laser etching any iron based metal will still lead to corrosion due to moisture in the air that is at the molecular level and the laser etchings won't effect at all, I would think that it would actually open up the material to more surface area for the rust to take hold and penetrate faster.
personally, this is the stuff I'm excited to try out
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