Researchers at the University of Houston were studying the nonlinear transmission of light through an aqueous suspension of gold nanoparticles when they noticed something unexpected. A pulse laser appeared to have forced the movement of a stream of liquid in a glass laboratory cuvette. As they investigated, they realized something more complex was a work than a transfer of momentum from the laser photons to the liquid. Their observation led to a new optofulidics principle, explained in a paper published Sept. 27 in the journal Science Advances.