5. Conclusion

Anchoring science is a good example of a field where basic and applied research are pursuing common goals. However, it can sometimes seem as if there is still a wide gap between practice and theory. For a long time, academic research focused on ideal systems: flat, chemically homogeneous solids down to the atomic level, simple liquids. But it's important to understand the extent to which the progress made over the last twenty years on these model systems has been able to provide a solid foundation for all more applied research, by offering an indispensable reference scheme to which to relate. Indeed, in recent years, research has narrowed the gap between model and applied systems. Taking into account the non-ideality of solids is the main axis along which this research has developed: attempts to understand how this non-ideality generates hysteresis for the contact angle, on the one hand,...