Linear grooves have been laser-written on quartz surfaces using ultrashort (50 fs) pulses of 800 nm light. Measurements of water contact angle indicate that laser patterning makes the quartz surface more hydrophilic. Fibroblast cells were cultured on such laser-written surfaces; they were observed to align preferentially along the direction of the laser written grooves (width 2 pm. Raman spectroscopy results indicate that there are no chemical changes induced in the surface upon our laser writing. Most unexpectedly, there are also no chemical changes induced in the cells that are spatially aligned along the laser-written grooves. Atomic force microscopy measurements confirm that our laser-writing induces dramatic enhancement of surface roughness along the grooves, and the cells appear to respond to this. Thus, cell alignment seems to be in response to physical cues rather than chemical signals. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.