Researchers teach liquid to flow uphill, hope to cool future CPUs (video)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 16th 2010 4:24PM
posted March 16th 2010 4:24PM
Another day, another experimental CPU cooling method that may or may not come to pass. We've seen "thermal paste" from IBM and polyethylene from MIT, and now researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a method for coaxing water along nanometer-scale grooves carved into silicon. So hydrophilic are the patterns that water will even flow against gravity (and we've got the video to prove it). Not only are the structures so precise and nondestructive that the surface feels smooth to the touch, but they also trap photons, according to The New York Times, "so the grooved silicon appears pitch-black." And who knows? Maybe your next PC will be cooled by streams of water flowing freely inside the case. It's a nice image, anyways. Peep the video after the break to see it in action for yourself.
Toilet Paper does the same job. Well Done!
They need to teach beer to flow uphill so I don't have lean back and tip the bottle to drink it.
@shishi
I heard you can't teach a red dog new tricks.
Quit confusing the act of absorption and the act of free water flow.
@buddytonto
I know there must be something unique here, but the video certainly doesn't look like free flowing water. It looks identical to absorption. The drop simply appears to spread out evenly across the surface.
@Vidikron In the act of absorption, liquid will spread to any and all available areas. Occupying each area completely before continuing up or out from it's point of contact. If that were the case here, the entire bottom portion of the tile would be occupied by water before it reached the top, as it is far closer to the point of contact. However, it follows a direct path upwards before diffusing across the plate.
That reminds me of the Blob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UydidePN30c
Completely miss the point. Post some half-baked ill-informed moronic reason this is lame. Feel self satisfied, imagining someone believes I pointed out something that the source and Engadget missed. Call anyone who posts to correct me a douche, dick, and or prick. Return to main Engadget page. Repeat.
@franktinsley
Downrank comment. Consider posting rebuttal, but then sigh at the utter pointlessness of it and return to main Engadget page instead. Lose a tiny bit more faith in humanity. Pet cat. Gain a tiny bit more faith in felinity.
Spill a cup of water? no worries place the cup on the spill and watch the climb right back in. :)
@Radar11c
I need that.. late night engadget reading tends to make me a bit clumsy :P
The energy that it takes for energy to flow uphill comes from potential energy being converted to downward kinetic energy by gravity, but without gravity pulling the water up, how is there any potential upward energy and a way to convert it into kinetic energy?
@BLEH is my middle name That second "energy" should be "water"
It is most definitely not free flowing upward indefinately or it would be a perpetual motion device and as such impossible
That be some crazy shit right there.
Wait... It "traps" photons... and appears pitch black? I want to make a home theater using this stuff, it would be funny as hell to watch people walk in and trip down the stairs they can't see.
If it can make water flow upwards doesn't that mean that if you cluster 1000 of them them tightly together and hook them up in a closed system to a tiny water generator, that you can create a machine that produces energy for ever?
This must be what they used on that black spaceship in the Restaurant and the End of the Universe.