Today, I witnessed one of the coolest things ever. No, I’m not talking about Harry Potter- that’s tomorrow-, but what I did see was ferrofluids in action.
Ferrofluid is a liquid that becomes polarized in the presence of a magnet or a magnetic field. When it is magnetized, it will usually become cone-like prongs that shoot up from the surface of the liquid. Since a person can magnetize ferrofluid and make it stick up, it is known as a “liquid metal”. You can make ferrofluid by mixing iron dichloride, iron trichloride, and ammonium hydroxide. After that, we had to drain the water from the solution three times. From there, we used the magnet to make the spikes
propel from the liquid surface. However, there is a large problem with ferrofluids, which is making the actual liquid. Making ferrofluid is like baking a cake or something; it takes patience and precision. If one screws up with measurements or mixes the chemicals together slowly, then the fluid will not stick up, which occurred to my group today, unfortunately. But it doesn’t matter because I got to see everyone’s ferrofluid. The ferrofluid lab today reminded me of what a counselor told us earlier this week. The counselor told us that nanoparticles have certain properties that are unexplainable and incomprehensible. Some would say that these properties seem to break the laws of physics.
This lab not only showed us science but also revealed a artistic aspect. Many museums and art exhibits use ferrofluids to entertain the audience. Also, some artists, like Sachiko Kodama, utilize ferrofluids for their art forms. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid
http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/spiral/
http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/ffexp/index.html
http://wohba.com/2005/10/magnetic-liquid-weirdness.html
http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/events/pastevent.jsp?id=207