A lone link

Looking at the induced-charge electroosmosis literature (blob at left) and the nanopore literature (blob at right) through some key papers, it seems that there aren’t very many connections between those areas yet. The green square represents one of the first papers on ICEO by Squires and Bazant in 2004, and the blue square is Siwy’s 2006 paper on ionic current rectification in nanopores. The gray circles represent papers that cited Squires or Siwy, plus all the papers in their bibliographies. Few direct links turn up. The purple circle is a thorough review paper by Schoch, Han, and Renaud and the most direct link between the two blobs. Both blobs study fluids around micro or nanostructures in applied electric fields, but the left blob is more math/physics/electrical engineering and the right, chemistry and biophysics. The left blob (Bert) really cares about metal-covered surfaces and microstructures. The right blob (Ernie) is capable of putting thin metal films on nanostructures, but does not always do this. I think Bert and Ernie should somehow use the purple circle to communicate, or add more circles in between.