---
title: "Scientists Accidentally Created a Liquid Magnet"
description: "For the first time, scientists created a liquid magnet. But they're still figuring out how the magnet, created by accident, works."
date: "2019-07-25"
modified: "2019-07-25"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/liquid-magnet"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "magnets"
  - "materials"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Accidentally Created a Liquid Magnet

![For the first time, scientists created a liquid magnet. But they're still figuring out how the magnet, created by accident, works.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/liquid-magnet.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Oops

Scientists created a metallic liquid capable of maintaining a magnetic field for the first time in history — and they did it entirely by accident.

University of Massachusetts Amherst engineers were working on 3D-printing liquids when they discovered that the droplets of iron, oil, and water were able to maintain a magnetic field, the researchers [told *Live Science*](<https://www.livescience.com/66018-permanently-magnetic-liquids.html>), a first for [any liquid](<https://futurism.com/ferrofluid-liquid-art>).

## How Do They Work?

The researchers plan to launch new studies to sort out why the droplets maintained a magnetic field, they told *Live Science*. Once they sort out the "how," they'll get to work figuring out what to do with these new wet magnets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAMhNA_k7UM

In [their study](<https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6450/264>), which was published in the journal *Science* last week, researchers discuss how they can "program" the droplets into different shapes to create different tools.

Project leader Thomas Russell told *Live Science* that he could picture using them to create a sort of magnet "grabber" or a tiny replica of the shape-shifting liquid robot from "Terminator 2."

"For me," he told *Live Science*, "it sort of represents a sort of new state of magnetic materials."

**READ MORE:** [In a Lab Accident, Scientists Create the First-Ever Permanently Magnetic Liquid](<https://www.livescience.com/66018-permanently-magnetic-liquids.html>) \[*Live Science*\]

**More on magnets:** *[A Tiny Magnet Just Created the World's Strongest Magnetic Field](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/magnet-worlds-strongest-magnetic-field>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)