Scientists Make Water Run Uphill

redshadow01 writes to mention a BBC story about scientists flouting the laws of physics for fun, and profit. From the article: "The US scientists did the experiment to demonstrate how the random motion of water molecules in hot steam could be channelled into a directed force. But the team, writing in Physical Review Letters, believes the effect may be useful in driving coolants through overheating computer microchips."

Scientists also noticed the older water...

[deft (253558)]

Scientists also noticed the older water samples flowed uphill, both ways.

In the snow.

So what

[kitsunewarlock (971818)]

So what, they've been doing that at Knott's house of mystery for the past like what, 20 years?

I know how to make water travel uphill:

Step 1: Stand up.
Step 2: Find an incline.
Step 3: Walk up said incline.
Warning: Step 1 and Step 3 should not be performed by anyone who even knows how to properly type in the URL to this website without first consulting a physician. Doing so may cause undesired effects such as loss of breath and/or time spent away from the internet.

Re:So what

[rockwood (141675)]

There at least 22 other net-documented places that this occurs. Rolling Uphill Illusion [ucr.edu]. The 'local' location to my residence is Gravity Hill, PA [bedfordcounty.net]. These locations are well documented and explained in detail. Furthermore [gravityhill.com] the fifth picture from the top shows where the street has been tagged as well as the starting point.

For fun and for ..

[Neeth (887729)]

1. Flaunting the laws of physics
2. ???
3. Profit!

Steam, useful for cooling microchips?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Too bad only intel CPU's run hot enough for steam cooling to be viable.

Not flaunting, FLOUTING

[mrjeff3000 (776208)]

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/flaunt.html [wsu.edu] ("To flaunt is to show off: you flaunt your new necklace by wearing it to work. "Flout" has a more negative connotation; it means to treat with contempt some rule or standard. The cliché is "to flout convention." Flaunting may be in bad taste because it's ostentatious, but it is not a violation of standards.") (That is all.)

Maxwell's demon?

[Toba82 (871257)]

Has Maxwell's demon been discovered?

Hmmm....

[LoRdTAW (99712)]

Now if they could find a way to do the same with shit.

Usefull in computers?

[SmallFurryCreature (593017)]

It works by having the water hovering on steam. As said in the article the same effect you get when you poor some water on a hot plate.

Now you only get steam above 100 degrees celcius. Meaning you chip must be literally cooking before this effect sets in.

A bit too late perhaps?

Well offcourse you could use liqueds with lower boiling temps but then it wouldn't be water flowing up hill anymore now would it.

Nice idea but I think I just use a pump rather then waiting for the cooling to set in only after my cpu is glowing red.

Re:Usefull in computers?

[rolfwind (528248)]

Not only could you used other liquids, pumps generate heat too, and the thing can act as a temperature sensor so it combines three functions in one.

If it gets my chips running faster, simplifies design (lowers costs) and improves reliability (taking out pumps reduces what can go wrong) I'm all for it.

eh?

[by Anonymous Coward]

The US scientists did the experiment to demonstrate how the random motion of water molecules in hot steam could be channelled into a directed force

Thats so awesome! Maybe we can use that force push trains or something!

M. C. Escher & Dyson.

[Whiney Mac Fanboy (963289)]

No discussion of water flowing uphill can go without mention of M.C. Escher's Waterfall [usf.edu] and Dyson's fantastic real world recreation [tiscali.co.uk] (and there's a good explanation of Dyson did it [bbc.co.uk] at the BBC.

Another way to do it

[by Anonymous Coward]

Whitesides made water run uphill 14 years ago! He used a different "trick" though: he made a surface that was very hydrophobic on one side, and very hydrophilic on the other. A drop of water feels this gradient and moves towards the hydrophilic side, even if it happens to be uphill. The energy comes from the surface tension of the drop (it relaxes as it moves).

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992Sci...256.1539C [harvard.edu]

So Escher was right after all

[John_Renne (176151)]

The moment i saw the headline my mind came to Escher, showing us water floating upwards in the painting http://www.petergh.f2s.com/waterfall.jpg [f2s.com] Now let's wait for the real life implementation of the ever-rising stairs...

I hate this kind of story

[Dylanesque (868329)]

This is all very nice, but then the scientist go and say this will 'help cool computer chips'. This it will never do, and I >hate itjust below the onset of film boiling (i.e. when this phenomenon does not occur) is well known to represent to the point of optimum heat transfer. Once film boiling comments, the heat transfer coeffiecient for the surface declines drastically (basically because the density of the coolant in contact with the hot surface declines). Although converting liquid to gas uses a large amount of heat for no rise in temperature, unless liquid can be kept in contact with the surface (by getting rid of the gas) then heat transfer declines

Making a droplet walk up hill is a neat trick, but in reality its like firing a water rocket with a payload of water.

I hate this kind of story

FInally! A cure for world hunger!

[Provocateur (133110)]

Here I was, thinking that scientists have found a way to make rivers bring water to parched land where irrigation could help make the land more productive for starving nations,

and all we have are some serious overclockers.

I'd hate to be at a LAN party with these guys.
 

Links with information...

[Mike Peel (885855)]

Why doesn't the article link to pages with more information that just a summary?

• The group's website [uoregon.edu], including movies [uoregon.edu]
• The journal article [arxiv.org]

Incidentally, this news dates from the end of 2005 - so slashdot is running 4/5 months behind the times.

That sounds like so many...

[CFD339 (795926)]

...I.T. projects I've reviewed as a consultant its scary. The spent huge sums figuring out how to do something which is inherently difficult and provides little real world benefit in anything but the longest possible range projections -- which invariably become useless once that amount of time comes to pass.

Its like building a website out of "Pure J2EE" (whatever the hell that means) -- or building a sand castle one grain of sand at a time. It can be done. That's terrific. But why?

2nd law of thermodynamics wins again

[Analogy Man (601298)]

It would work great, you would just need a nuclear reactor or other suitable energy source to heat the surface of the carefully machined track that the hover craft would run on.

The headline of this article is a bit misleading. Within the article there is no claim of getting anything for nothing...For example I have a device in my basement that makes water run uphill. I have heard some people call it a sump pump. Using a portion of the waste heat from a CPU to drive its own cooling cycle is appealling..

Re:Interesting

[rkcallaghan (858110)]

How about a self recycling dam? After the water creates energy going down you push it back up and do it again. Maybe even you can get some engery from moving it up. This is all assuming that you gain more energy than you're losing with this method.

Look up the Second Law of Thermodynamics and get back to me on that.

Cheers,
~Rebecca

Re:Interesting

[tacocat (527354)]

So Escher was ahead of his time?

Re:Interesting

[It'sYerMam (762418)]

Ahem. Are you seriously suggesting the creation of a perpetual motion machine?? Something that gives out energy? Hehehe. Besides, if you'd RTFA (yes, I know, this is /.) you'd realise the water has to be pretty hot, in order to give the water molecules enough energy to do this.
Incidentally, this science is months out of date: http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/tech/dn86 1 6.html [newscientisttech.com]

Re:Interesting

[joto (134244)]

How about a self recycling dam? After the water creates energy going down you push it back up and do it again. Maybe even you can get some engery from moving it up. This is all assuming that you gain more energy than you're losing with this method.

Well, that would work. Except that you also need a heating source that will heat the water vapour to above 200C. You could use solar power for that, but if you already have solar power, solar cells would be more efficient. Heck, if you could consistently heat a

Re:British vacuurm cleaner builder did this alread

[KylePflug (898555)]

Except the American version actually flows uphill, and Dyson's version is just an illusion. Thanks for playing, though.

Re:WTF..

[Mike Quin (15827)]

That was really just an optical trick - the water flowing 'up' the ramp was actually flowing down it, with bubbles underneath the ramp giving the appearance of motion in the other direction.

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3046791.stm [bbc.co.uk]