Poisonous Frogs Inspire Freeze-Resistant Airplanes

So how does it work?

"When the surface starts icing over, e.g. due to frost, [designed wing] pores fill up with condensate or ice and make contact with the antifreeze," Rykaczewski explained to CBS News. "Due to the contact, the antifreeze starts melting ice and diffusing. This is quite nice since in a way it is passive - the release of antifreeze happens by itself and does not require any external input from an operator."

In a series of tests, as described in his paper, the researcher found that prototype designs of this system in simulated tests fared quite well, delaying ice accumulation in wings 10 times longer than surfaces just designed to repel water or simply coated in antifreeze.

Still, it's important to note that this tech is far from perfect. Xianming Shi, the director of Washington State University's Laboratory for Advanced & Sustainable Cementitious Materials, warned that this "poison frog skin" approach changes wing surface dramatically, which could unintentionally alter how a plane performs in flight. Accommodations then must be made and problems accounted for before it is even considered as a viable option.

Still, the idea of a plane that can dive headfirst through freezing rain without a care in the world is an attractive one, and can open up options for traveling this incredible planet all the more.

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