Moving a liquid from point A to point B typically requires either a sloping surface or a pump of some sort to apply pressure.
A new kind of material that is in early development requires neither, instead relying on a squirming skeleton of microscopic fibres to move it in a direction, opening the way for a class of fluid capable of worming itself through a channel.
Researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts took a hint from nature and investigated how the biomechanical properties of materials called microtubules could be applied to a mixture to make it move in a single direction around a container.
Read the story:http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-kind-of-liquid-can-push-itself-along-a-flat-surface-all-by-itself
Paper:http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6331/eaal1979#Article%20in%20Science
Gif: A slow-motion animation of microtubules — the red lines — floating in a watery solution.
Video source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLOtlWTwtHRXd922_RSmrUFknzZ0WnnTkp&v=RYPfQOvMmL8
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