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A scientist and an engineer were looking at the picture above, entitled Tails from the Nozzle Bank. The scientist waxed lyrical about the quintessential beauty of science at the micro-scale. “It’s upside down,” said the engineer.

He was right of course: Newton’s law of gravity applies to ink drops as well as apples. But Steve Hoath, a researcher in ink-jet printing, had the last laugh as he turned what is an engineering failure into a picture that took first prize in the 2006 Epson Photography Competition within the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Here’s how.

Hoath’s…