A jet of liquid can bounce off of a hot plate without ever touching it. This extension of the Leidenfrost effect – the phenomenon that allows beads of water to skitter across a scorching pan – could help improve cooling processes, like those used in things ranging from nuclear reactors to firefighting.
Though first described nearly 300 years ago, the Leidenfrost effect has only been tested with fluid droplets, not squirts of liquid. Until…