H2Flow

Researchers at the University of Rochester have discovered how to make liquid overcome gravity and flow upward along a silicon surface. That means a hot tub in the International Space Station!

Scientists achieved the curious movement by using short laser blasts to carve imperceptible patterns into the silicon sheet. That alone prompted the water molecules to climb upward, without any additional aid. Unlike a straw, there is no outside pressure pushing the liquid up; it rises on its own accord. By creating nanometer-scale structures in silicon, the attraction that water molecules feel toward it as greatly increased. The attraction (or hydrophile) of the silicon becomes so great that it overcomes the strong bond that water molecules feel for other water molecules.

Instead of sticking to each other, the water molecules climb over one another for a chance to be next to the silicon. (This might seem like getting energy for free, but even though the water rises, thus gaining potential energy, the chemical bonds holding the water to the silicon require a lower energy than the ones holding the water molecules to other water molecules.) The water rushes up the surface at speeds of 3.5 cm per second.

Sounds neat, but when is that jacuzzi being launched?