A water droplet applied to a specially treated silicon chip speeds upward unassisted during a demonstration in a University of Rochester lab March 11, 2010. Researchers at the University led by professor Chunlei Guo have devised a way, by carving intricate patterns in silicon with extremely short, high-powered laser bursts, to transport liquid uphill on a silicon chip without a pump. The discovery could contribute to the design of elegant and effective systems to cool computer chips, which are made of silicon. Cooling silicon chips is widely acknowledged in the computer engineering field to be the biggest problem holding designers back from making faster computers. // photo: J. Adam Fenster/University of Rochester

University of Rochester optics professor Nick Vamivakas and physics Ph.D. candidate Levi Neukirch perform experiments with optically levitated nanodiamonds contained inside a trapping chamber in Wilmott Hall June 14, 2013. The process allows researchers to test fundamental physics questions related to quantum mechanics as well as provide a tool to perform high sensitivity nanoscale force sensing. // photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester