Water droplets have a unique ability: They can leap from a surface on their own. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as when a surface repels water or when heat is involved, such as a water or oil droplet skittering across a hot pan.

It also happens at a very small scale. Up to this point, researchers have observed droplets up to 3 millimeters in diameter exhibiting this behavior. When droplets are larger than that, gravity prevents it from jumping.

A new study published in Nature Physics identifies a previously unreported way to get a puddle of water up to a centimeter wide to jump into the air, something that could support applications from surface cleaning to 3D printing.