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Surfaces — lost and found

Surfaces were a topic of active debate among ancient philosophers, some of which continues to this day. Can modern surface science settle the question of whether surfaces exist or not?

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Figure 1: The nature (and very existence) of surfaces was keenly debated by ancient philosophers.
Figure 2: The old and the new.

Main image courtesy of Peter Northover, Oxford University, UK. Inset courtesy of A. S. Lea & D. Baer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from Agenzia 2000-CNR (grant CNRC00AA14_001, n.104035) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Paparazzo, E. Surfaces — lost and found. Nature Mater 2, 351–353 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat905

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