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Pumping Fluid With No Moving Parts
RogerRoast writes "In a study published in Physical Review B (abstract; full version is paywalled), researchers demonstrate for the first time an approach that allows ferrofluids to be pumped by magnetic fields alone. The invention could lead to new applications for this mysterious material. Though numerous industrial, commercial, and biomedical applications for ferrofluids have since been created, the original goal — to pump liquids with no machinery — remained elusive, until now. The ferrohydrodynamic pump method works when electrodes wound around a pipe force magnetic nanoparticles within the ferrofluids to rotate at varying speeds. Those particles closest to the electrodes spin faster, and it is this spatial variation in rotation speed that propels the ferrofluid forward."
Magnetohydrodynamics has been around for quite a while and has long been one of the holy grails of submarine propulsion with prototypes existing now for years.
Pfft, soviet submarines have had MHD drives since 1984. I saw a documentary about it in 1990...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
When I want to pump my fluids, I like to have my parts moving, nano or not!
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.