Proteins for Airplane Wings

As any Inuit can tell you, fish live in freezing water without themselves freezing, yet, unlike mammals, they're cold-blooded. How do they do it?

This question is of more than philosophical value, and in fact the Frauenhofer Institute for Production, Engineering and Applied Material Research in Bremen has spent a lot of time looking into it: if a material could be devised that would keep surfaces like airplane wings and high-tension wires from freezing up, the world would be a better place.

The answer seems to lie with a family of proteins synthesized not only in fish, but in plants and insects which can survive subzero temperatures. The Frauenhofer Institute has succeeded in synthesizing them; mixing them into paints, and testing them successfully. As part of a three-year research project with industrial participation, technically relevant surface findings should be transferred. To these belong the special lacquer for the anti-ice effect which improves the durability of such surfaces against external influences.