Ferrofluid

Image above taken from Wikipedia.

No, the image above is not from Digital Blasphemy, nor was it rendered in any sort of simulated environment. This is a scene from some Japanese anime made partially into reality. Coming from a computer graphics background, the image is another interesting peek into the capabilities of nanotechnology.

Basically, ferrofluid is nanoscale ferromagnetic particle suspended in fluid. It does not exhibit magnetism unless it is acted upon by an external source of magnetism. It is also widely used in today's technology, ranging from printer ink to paint used on military planes for RADAR deflection.

TechEBlog posted a link to a YouTube video where Japanese researchers attempted to "sculpt" the liquid into some interesting visualization. The result is some seriously eerie images.