A well-known consequence of miniaturizing fluidic systems is that walls are never very far from the fluids. I will discuss ideas towards exploiting, rather than minimizing, the influence of the walls in such systems, by employing the most 'wall-intensive' systems around -- porous media. More specifically, I will discuss a variety of possibilities that exist when porous media are rationally designed to have specific pore-scale properties, and will illustrate with two concrete examples: first, 'sculpting' field and flow lines using microfabricated `porous media' with highly anisotropic properties (with Max Narovlyansky, Harvard), and second, porous media with locally anisotropic surface chemistry that employ induced-charge electro-osmotic flows to generate extremely high pressures using low- voltage AC electric fields.
Audio (MP3 File, Podcast Ready)
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