You make scratches on a surface in a certain way, and heat the surface, and water flows across the surface in one direction. It’s a curious effect. I’m not sure exactly what I find so appealing about this – maybe that it could have been done in ancient times if anybody had tried it?
BBC News: Scientists make water flow uphill (be sure to watch the video).
They’re thinking of it as a way to move coolant through computer chips, but I can also imagine it being used in sensor technologies, solar heat collection panels, novel chemical processes (like a kind of high-speed thermophoresis? )… Lots of possibilities come to mind.