Comment Re:Do boats go faster because it repels water? (Score 2, Interesting) 133
Because just because you're ultra-hydrophobic, doesn't mean you're good at solving the problem of fouling.
The toxics are being phased out, but there's not much yet to replace them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofouling is a very complex subject, with a lot of research dollars behind it these days.
The skinny of it is that many proteins will expose their hydrophobic cores and thus denature onto these ultra-hydrophobic surfaces; I'd imagine these surfaces to be excellent in pure water, and terrible in anything non-ideal (aka, the ocean).
