Who has never spilled water, tea or wine while pouring it? Pouring liquids is difficult because they tend to cling to the bottle or the teapot spout rather than flowing directly into your cup or glass. A team of scientists from the University of Amsterdam, University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences put a new spin on this annoying ‘teapot effect’ by using it to form liquid helices. Their results were published in Physical Review Letters this week.