For the first time, scientists have created a permanently magnetic liquid. These liquid droplets can morph into various shapes and be externally manipulated to move around, according to a new study.
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In an even more bizarre application, imagine a mini liquid person — a smaller-scale version of the liquid T-1000 from the second “Terminator” movie — Russell said. Now imagine that parts of this mini liquid man are magnetized and parts aren’t. An external magnetic field could then force the little person to move its limbs like a marionette.
The View From North Central Idaho
Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.
You would think that one of the greatest action flicks of all time would be sufficient warning that making a T1000 would be a Bad Idea(TM). Well, as the saying goes, there’s no situation so bad it cannot be worse by intellectuals. Or, never challenge an engineer to do his worst. There are much easier ways to get into the history books.
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
“Externally manipulated”. “External magnetic field”. Meh. That means, if one party can manipulate this “marionette” (blob) then so can anyone else. Requiring an external magnet array, there’d be no point to it, beyond a small demonstration in a fixed installation, purely as a stunt.
One practical application for “ferrofluid” is as a conductive coolant in high power dynamic loudspeakers.
These were very small (millimeter sized) drops of fluid. With much larger quantities of fluid, semi-solids, or perhaps especially, non-Newtonian fluids internally generated magnetic fields could be used with a wider range of applications.
I like how they create this new thing and their first thought is “Hey, what about a Liquid Murderbot??”