Ever since computers were invented many different methods for keeping them cool has been tried. Fans moving hot and cold air; electronic heat sinks for the redistribution of heat; and water bath systems are a couple of more common methods. If the CPU or any integrated circuit boards got too hot it could result in permanent damage and so incremental improvements to cooling systems are always being designed.
But this latest design is less of a small shuffle and closer to a large stride. The new idea is to use grains of very fine silicon dioxide as a method of carrying heat away from alkready taxed systems. It would work in a very similar way to the water cooling methods but of course new mechanisms must be invented to pump the grains where they are needed. There are still things that need to be developed such as the fact the coating of the particles will be removed after being heated a couple of times; also experiments still need to be performed to see how well the temperature transfer works on a larger scale; and finally it has to be discovered if these grains could have an adverse affect on the electronics they will have to work in proximity to.