Water compresses under a high gradient electric field: Discovery of new physics may be useful for filtering biomolecules through a graphene nanopore

Scientists have predicted new physics governing compression of water under a high-gradient electric field. Physicists found that a high electric field applied to a tiny hole in a graphene membrane would compress the water molecules traveling through the pore by 3 percent. The predicted water compression may eventually prove useful in high-precision filtering of biomolecules for biomedical research.