(quiet electronic music)
- [Narrator] This bizarre goo is called ferrofluid.
And it really is the stuff of science fiction.
It was created at NASA as a way to move fuel in outer space.
And someday soon, it may be used
to pilot medicine through your body.
Today, well its uses are a little more mundane.
But it certainly looks good on video.
- They have these spikes that come out
when a magnetic field is applied
and they kind of look like alien structures (laughs).
- [Narrator] Thomas Webster is the director
of the Nanomedicine Laboratory at Northeastern University.
And he'll be our guide through the wonders
of this future goo.
Ferrofluid is made of three main ingredients:
magnetic nanoparticles like iron oxide, a special coating
that keeps these particles from clumping together,
and a water-based or oil-based liquid.
What makes ferrofluid magical is that
you can use a simple magnet to move it around
from a distance without using pumps or wires.
- So it is attractive for space
or other, you know, deep sea environments.
Environments that you can't touch or you can't get close to.
- [Narrator] The first ferrofluid was invented
by a NASA engineer named Steve Papell in the early 1960s.
His idea was that if you add these magnetic nanoparticles
to fuel, you can move it around in zero gravity
with a magnetic field.
That didn't really pan out, but since then
ferrofluids have been used far and wide,
in less sci-fi settings.
You can find ferrofluids in hard drives
because around a magnet, ferrofluid almost becomes
like a solid, like a glue that seals things.
In skateboards, ferrofluids are found in wheels
to reduce friction, and in speakers
the material buffers vibrations,
enhancing the sound. (bass guitar purrs)
But the future of biomedicine is where things
get really exciting.
Because the particles inside ferrofluid are so tiny,
they can seep inside cells, including cancer cells.
- [Thomas] If you can get a magnetic particle
to go into a cancer cell, and you apply a magnetic field,
then these materials can heat up,
and they can kill the cancer cell.
Whereas a normal cell, a healthy cell,
does not die as quickly when that temperature increases.
- [Narrator] And, there's another advantage.
- Many conventional drugs that are used in cancer treatment
will kill the cancer cells on the outside of a tumor,
but if you can direct your magnetic field
and focus high magnetic power at the center of the tumor,
you can now get the ferrofluid to go in and kill the inside,
and you have to kill the inside of a tumor
or else it'll just grow back.
- [Narrator] The applications are especially exciting
for brain disease, because ferrofluids could help a cell,
rather than destroy it.
- [Thomas] In neural diseases, sometimes
the neurons fail to connect with each other.
We've seen in our studies that
a ferrofluid can help that connection.
- [Narrator] If ferrofluids can help neurons
communicate better, they could help people
recover from a stroke or cope with Alzheimer's disease.
- You know, and that's very exciting to think about,
because our treatments are even worse
for problems in the brain right now
than for cancer or for infections.
- [Narrator] Webster and his team
have tested ferrofluids mostly in mice.
They still need to be proven safe enough for human trials.
And there's still a lot we don't know.
What happens if the nanoparticles
end up in organs that we're not targeting?
Webster says more research is needed,
as well as more interest from medical companies.
- We really have to get industry involved, right?
We at universities could spend our lifetimes
studying these things, but if we don't get industry excited,
it'll just be another material
that had a lot of hype and fails.
- [Narrator] In the meantime, we'll just have to settle
for hypnotizing YouTube videos,
and daydreams about what comes next.
(quiet electronic tones)
Hey everyone, thanks for watching.
Just a heads up that ferrofluid
is actually pretty messy stuff,
so if you decide to play with it on your own,
just be prepared with some gloves, some eye protection,
and clothing that you won't mind getting dirty.
Also, there are a lot of shots
that didn't make it into this video,
and we've posted them on the link below
and in the community tab on our new
Verge Science YouTube channel,
which you should subscribe to.