It was so cute. Black in color and extremely smooth to the touch, we gazed in the adoration as it playfully traveled around the little blue plate. Our precious ferrofluid. We were proud.
Today was essentially the very first time we got to “get our hands dirty”, this expression in our case being far from metaphorical. Creating nanotechnology is very different fom listening about nanotechnology eing created, and we all enojoyed the opportunity to do so. It turns out that nanotechnology does not necessarily have to be this impossibly expensive and inaccessible type of mechanism; to the contrary, it is something that anyone can make using some chemicals
.
As I mentioned the particular type of nanotechnology that we created was a ferrofluid- or a colloidal suspension of magnetic nanoparticles. It was pretty baffling to see a fluid respond to a magnet- moving instantly after it and spiking up periodically as if it were a living thing.
Of course it was fun to watch, but there are so many directins that this simple fluid can take people. Maybe this
seems completely ridiculous but maybe we can easily construct cars and other technology using ferrfluids. Imagine a room full of strategically arranged magnets and little faucets on the walls. As the faucets spew ferrofluid the magnets manipulate its flow in a way that self-assembles an entire vehicle in minutes. That could increase production efficiency because the need for humans in the process would be mostly eliminated. Likewise this technology could be applied on a smaller scale to build such useful things as toasters.
Doubtless there are more practical things to be done with ferrofluids such as localized medicine delivery that could potentially be used to treat and cure many diseases. However this is so practical that it is already being done and hopefully we may see the benefits in our lifetimes.
http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/background/ferrofluid/index.html
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2007/04/ferrofluid-art/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me5Zzm2TXh4