This question of paint drying time has been an age-old problem for the painting world. Painters have observed a peculiar phenomenon: They seem to dry at about the same rate, regardless of humidity in the air. Experts have been scratching their heads over this conundrum for years, but a new study in 2013 offers some insight into the mystery of humidity and paint drying. Ridiculously, paint drying times don't seem to have much relation to the amount of humidity in the air. This is a result of an entire series of complicated experiments by research supervisors, all about the sticky world between polymer solutions and moisture. That having been said, this earth-shaking finding transcends the sphere of art. It may change our understanding of viral diseases dramatically. Viruses popping up and having seasons have long intrigued scientists.
Evaporating liquids aren’t equal. A glass of water evaporates more quickly in a dry environment than in a humid environment (left). Adding long-chain polymer molecules to the water changes the evaporation rate’s sensitivity to humidity. The water’s evaporation drives the polymers to the surface, forming a dense layer that hinders evaporation and renders it independent of humidity.
The results indicate that the mechanism affecting paint drying also affects kinetics by which droplets containing viruses evaporate. This new data could restructure our thinking about how viruses spread and reveal that the majority of diseases are seasonal. But in addition to this, such results have drawn attention not only within the confines of laboratories but beyond that fine line that divides painting from our everyday life. The reinforced use of sex as a metaphor has caused people to re-examine everyday incidents, from the basic actions taking place in respiratory droplets down to how skin maintains moisture. As in any scientific breakthrough, this revelation only creates more unanswered questions. Unexpected findings have discovered new levels of complexity and other factors that impact evaporation rates.
The telltale waves. A microscope image shows the gel layer that forms at the solution–air interface of a polymer solution. The buckling is in the stiff skin covering a more viscoelastic layer. (The field of view is about 1 mm wide.)
In particular, the finding of a gel-like layer completely upsets accepted mechanisms and forces scientists to reexamine models and concepts. An unprecedented paradigm shift in the scientific world will soon be unleashed, as the secrets about evaporation independent of humidity are near at hand. Now the artist's palette does not hide a world beyond. The mysteries of moisture and molecules have slowly unwound, as paint drying has been exposed to its full extent before our eyes in one lethal blow--death by excessive use for 19th-century art artists, who were often used at its most dangerous limits just because it was fashionable. As scientists explore this intriguing phenomenon in greater depth, the limits of what we know are constantly constricted--it seems that such an age is spreading into our horizons with a new vitality and brilliance.
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