(a) (b) (c) (d) FIG. 1: (Colour online) Images of strongly ramified dewetting structures obtained using Atomic Force Microscopy in the case of (a) an aqueous collagen solution on graphite (courtesy of U. Thiele, M. Mertig and W. Pompe; see also Ref. [42]. Image size: 5 µ m × 5 µ m); (b) poly(acrylic acid) in water spin-coated onto a polystyrene substrate (reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. from Ref. [23]; copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2002; Image size: 2 . 5 µ m × 2 . 5 µ m); and in both (c) and (d), a solution of gold nanoparticles in toluene, spin-coated onto native oxide terminated silicon substrates (scale bars given in panels). In all the images the lighter areas correspond to the deposited solute and the dark areas to the empty substrate. 5