The Accidental Liquid Magnet
The first-ever permanent liquid magnet was made accidentally by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California. “For me, it sort of represents a sort of new state of magnetic materials,” Thomas Russell, the project’s lead researcher, says. The lab was working with iron oxides (compounds made from iron and oxygen) and a researcher there noticed that the particles within an object 3D-printed from the material were spinning in unison. Droplets (a blend of water, oil, and iron oxides) that had contact with the object then became permanently magnetized. Though an accident, this is just the beginning of an entirely new project that could revolutionize the use and look of magnets. Read more at Popular Mechanics.
Via popularmechanics.com link opens in a new window
