Gravity-Defying Metal Pumps Liquid Uphill

Jun-04-09 Scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same wicking process that trees employ to pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves.

The metal could be used to pump microscopic amounts of liquid around a medical diagnostic chip, cool a computer's processor or turn almost any simple metal into an anti-bacterial surface.

By using an ultra-fast burst of laser light, Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester, and his assistant, Anatoliy Vorobyev, were able to form nanoscale and microscale pits, globules, and strands across the metal's surface. These nanostructures change the way molecules of a liquid interact with the molecules of the metal, allowing them to become more or less attracted to each other, depending on Guo's settings.

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[GIZMAG.COM]

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