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 …

Bright Pink Seesaw Unites People at US-Mexico Border

A set of neon pink seesaws along the US-Mexico border (in Sunland Park and Ciudad Juárez, respectively) have been installed by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello—who work together as Rael San Fratello. The installation—called “Teetertotter Wall”—is playful and powerfully defiant. Rael calls it the “literal fulcrum for the US-Mexico relations” where it’s blindingly clear that “the actions that take place on one side have …

Sony’s Reon Pocket Wearable Air Conditioner

On Sony’s crowdfunding platform in Japan, the slender, personal thermoelectric cooling unit known as the Reon Pocket can purportedly reduce a user’s body temperature by 13 degrees Celsius (or 23 degrees Fahrenheit). About the size of a card wallet, the Bluetooth-equipped device slips into a dedicated sleeve on the back of an accompanying undershirt. Its temperature can then be controlled through an iOS or Android …