If so, individual nanoparticles of ink will be precisely dotted over the solid surface.

ECONOMIST: How to build tiny devices using miniature stencils

And the earth's solid surface can be made to stand in for that of other planets, too.

ECONOMIST: Planetary pretenders

When a team of Harvard researchers wanted to create the ultimate liquid- and solid-repelling surface, they looked toward the Nepenthes pitcher plant, where curious insects check in and never check out, thanks to slippery walls that lead to their tiny, horrific fate.

ENGADGET: SLIPS liquid repeller is inspired by carnivorous plants, enemy to insects and graffiti artists alike

The asteroids hit the surface hard, over and over, and since the Moon has been a solid body for most of its history, their materials stay on or close to the surface.

FORBES: The Moon is a Natural Platform for Asteroid Mining, Detection and Deflection

Luckham and Torres milled down old fabrics and mixed the fibers with a polymer, then added a solvent that would evaporate before the formula hit a surface and turned solid on contact.

FORBES: Fashion In A Can: The Clothes You Can Spray On

Celeriac is a celery variety refined over time to produce an increasingly large, solid, globular root just below the soil surface.

NPR: The Vegetable World's Ugly Duckling: Celeriac

At one fetid pit in a jungle glade, he stepped gingerly onto the surface of the pool, where the solid matter in the produced water had congealed into a tarlike crust that was sturdy enough to support him.

NEWYORKER: Reversal of Fortune

The runners on the bottom make the mouse seem almost more appropriate for sledding than mousing, but it glides around just fine on a solid surface.

ENGADGET: New iMac and Magic Mouse unboxing and quick hands-on