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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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Scientists Created An Invisible Pipe That Guides Matter Through The Air Without Touching

Imagine a stream of liquid flowing horizontally through the air without any visible pipe or support. Nothing touches it, yet the liquid follows a controlled path as if it were moving through an invisible tube. Even more surprisingly, the device creating this effect makes no sound that humans can hear.

This unusual technology is not magic. It is the result of carefully controlled ultrasonic waves, and researchers at the University of Helsinki have developed a working prototype that can guide liquids, gases, and solid materials without requiring a physical container.

The invention could offer a new way to transport difficult-to-handle substances, reduce contamination risks, and create flexible pathways for materials in laboratories and industrial facilities. It may also open new possibilities for controlling electrical discharges.

The research, titled “Contactless Continuous Guidance of Matter in Its Main States Using Curved Elongated Bessel-Like Acoustic Fields,” was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2026.

How Does a Pipe Made of Sound Work?

Traditional pipes rely on solid walls to contain and direct liquids or gases. The newly developed system takes a completely different approach: it uses sound waves to create an invisible boundary around the material being transported.

The device was developed by the Electronics Research Laboratory at the University of Helsinki, which has a long history of research into ultrasound.

The prototype uses 256 small speakers arranged around the material's path. These speakers produce ultrasonic waves at a frequency of approximately 40 kilohertz (40,000 vibrations per second).

Humans generally cannot hear sounds at this frequency because it is above the normal range of human hearing.

When the speakers operate together in a carefully controlled pattern, their ultrasonic waves combine to create a special acoustic field. This field can guide material along a predetermined path, producing an effect similar to moving through a hollow tube.

The system does not create a physical pipe. Instead, the sound waves provide the forces needed to guide the material without direct contact with solid walls.

Ari Salmi, a professor of electronics at the University of Helsinki who led the development of the concept, described the effect as one of the closest things to magic he had seen in an experimental setup.

However, the science behind it is based on acoustics and the precise control of sound waves.

Why Is a Pipe Without Walls Important?

Pipes are essential in factories, laboratories, chemical plants, and medical facilities. However, conventional pipes can create problems when the materials passing through them are sticky, corrosive, or highly sensitive to contamination.

For example, certain chemicals can damage pipe surfaces, while sticky substances may leave deposits that are difficult to remove. These deposits can affect performance and increase maintenance requirements.

The ultrasonic tube could help address some of these challenges by eliminating direct contact between the transported material and a solid pipe wall.

Because the material does not need to touch the device's surface, there is less opportunity for substances to accumulate on the inside of a conventional pipe. It could also reduce the risk of contamination caused by contact with container materials.

This feature may be particularly useful when handling delicate or contamination-sensitive substances in scientific experiments and specialised manufacturing processes.

However, the technology is still at the prototype stage. Its suitability for different chemicals, biological materials, and industrial environments will need to be established through further testing.

The Tube Can Change Direction

One of the most interesting features of the system is its flexibility.

Ordinary pipes usually have fixed shapes. Changing the route of a pipeline often requires additional components, valves, or physical modifications.

The ultrasonic tube, on the other hand, can be reshaped by changing how its speakers operate. Researchers can adjust the acoustic field to guide the material along a different route.

Dmitry Nikolaev, a postdoctoral researcher who led the project team, explained that controlling the speakers differently allows the tube to be reshaped and turned when needed.

This could make it possible to redirect a stream of liquid towards a new destination without physically rebuilding the transport system.

The researchers also report that the technology can dispense liquid with single-drop precision when required. Such control could be valuable in experiments where accurate quantities of a substance must be delivered without introducing contamination from a nozzle or container.

Importantly, transporting different types of matter requires different acoustic configurations. A field suitable for a liquid may not work in the same way for a solid or a gas.

The team has therefore explored how the system can guide materials in different physical states.

It Can Also Guide Electrical Discharges

The technology's potential applications extend beyond the transportation of ordinary materials.

According to the researchers, the acoustic field can also guide an electrical discharge along a desired route.

Electrical discharges, including sparks, can be difficult to control because their paths depend on factors such as the surrounding environment and the electrical properties of the materials involved.

A system capable of influencing the path of a discharge could offer new possibilities for experiments involving electricity and plasma-related phenomena.

However, practical applications would require additional research to establish how accurately and reliably these discharges can be controlled under different conditions.

An Idea That Began During an Evening Walk

The concept behind the ultrasonic tube originated with an everyday engineering problem.

Around four years before the reported development, Salmi and his colleagues were working on a device designed to clean the inner surfaces of pipes using ultrasound.

During a conversation with a colleague over lunch, they discussed the possibility of creating a pipe without an internal surface where dirt could accumulate.

The idea remained with Salmi. Later, while walking his dog one evening, he began thinking about whether ultrasonic waves could create the walls of a pipe without using any physical material.

Turning that idea into a functioning device proved difficult.

The researchers had to experiment with different speaker configurations and control methods before they found a way to generate the acoustic field needed to guide material through the air.

The work involved collaboration with researchers from the Public University of Navarre in Spain and the University of Michigan in the United States.

Their efforts eventually resulted in a working prototype.

A Small Device With Significant Energy Requirements

The current prototype measures just 8 centimetres (3.1 inches) in length. Interestingly, its length is smaller than its diameter.

Despite its compact size, the device requires approximately 50 watts of electrical power to operate. That is comparable to the power consumption of a traditional incandescent light bulb.

Nikolaev explained that multiple modules could potentially be connected in a row to create a longer transport pathway. This modular approach could allow researchers to build systems suited to different applications.

However, extending the device into a long, practical pipeline will require further engineering. Maintaining a stable acoustic field over longer distances, managing energy consumption, and ensuring reliable operation will be important challenges.

There is also an unexpected issue: although the device operates at a frequency humans generally cannot hear, its ultrasound may still affect animals that can detect higher-frequency sounds.

Nikolaev noted that the ultrasound intensity near the device can be extremely high, with levels comparable to the sound intensity of a jet engine at close range, even though the frequency is too high for normal human hearing.

This means that acoustic exposure and safety will need careful consideration before the technology can be used in everyday environments.

What Happens Next?

The development of a contactless tube represents an interesting step towards controlling matter using sound rather than solid structures.

If the technology can be scaled up and made more energy-efficient, it could eventually find applications in specialised chemical processing, laboratory equipment, precision material handling, and scientific research.

Its ability to change direction and deliver individual drops could be especially useful in situations where conventional pipes and nozzles create contamination or maintenance problems.

Nevertheless, the current device is a prototype, not a replacement for conventional pipelines. Researchers will need to demonstrate that the approach can operate reliably over longer distances and with a wider range of materials.

For now, the most remarkable achievement is that sound waves can create a tube-like pathway capable of guiding matter without a physical wall.

What appears to be an invisible pipe is actually a carefully engineered arrangement of ultrasonic waves — a striking example of how controlling an invisible force can lead to an entirely new approach to engineering.

Reference: Dmitrii Nikolaev et al., Contactless Continuous Guidance of Matter in Its Main States Using Curved Elongated Bessel-Like Acoustic Fields, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2026. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2614959123.

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