杏吧原创

USING only a beam of light, researchers in Japan have managed to move liquid
around. They say the technique could help manoeuvre minute quantities of fluids
around 鈥渓abs on chips鈥�. Kunihiro Ichimura and his colleagues at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology in Yokohama placed droplets of olive oil on a special
photosensitive surface. Light alters the surface鈥檚 chemical configuration, which
in turn affects the surface tension of any fluid on it. So focusing light on one
side of a droplet makes it flow away from the beam (Science, vol 288, p
1624).