It is always a pleasure when scientific findings are used for impressive exhibitions of beauty and harmony. Sachiko Kodama is a Japanese professor and artist who took advantage of new materials to produce an amazing display of beauty
The Morpho Spirals work by applying a music-controlled magnetic field to a ferrofluid, a class of substances also known as “liquid iron”. Many of us probably had the chance to play with iron filings and a magnet. The result shows the magnetic field pattern between the two poles of the magnet
Iron filings in a magnetic field
Ferrofluids are substances similar to shaving gel, embedded with particles of a magnetically-reactive (paramagnetic) substance, such as magnetite. The size of these particles is so tiny that we are well in the realm of nanotechnology (size in the billionth of a meter), so that the obtained gel is a stable colloidal suspension, where no separation between the two parts occurs. The result looks and behaves like “liquid iron”, which can be shaped by a magnetic field exactly as the iron filings we played with as children. Put some Japanese style into it, and the result is fascinating both artistically and scientifically.
