Acidic droplet solves maze

A team led by Northwestern University chemistry professor Bartosz A. Grzybowski has shown that an acidic droplet can successfully navigate a complex maze (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja9076793).

"I personally find most exciting that such a simple system can exhibit apparently 'intelligent' behavior," Louisiana State University chemistry professor John A. Pojman comments. "This approach may be useful as a pumping method for microfluidics or a way to convert chemical energy to mechanical motion in small devices. I am eager to see if they can generalize it to other types of gradients," he says.