
If you’ve ever wished your makeup could better incorporate scientific principles, then you might want to check out Sephora’s newest nail polish, one that creates cool 3D effects once you put a magnet over it while it is drying. I’m not big on nail polish, but I’d love to play with this formula. How about you other geek ladies?
Steampunk Robot 3D Magnets Set of 4 – $49.95
First it was Zombies and now it is Steampunk Robots! Will the invasion of fantastic Neatorama exclusive products ever end? We certainly hope not!
Behold the awesome Steampunk Robot 3D Magnet Set of 4 from the NeatoShop. This amazing set comes with:
Mix them up to create your own 3D steampunk robot fridge magnets!
The 3D Zombie Magnets is compatible with this set. You can combine them to create your own frightening Zombie / Steampunk Robot creature.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Magnetic fun!
If I didn’t have a purse and wasn’t careful to always put my keys back in it every time, I’d always lose my keys. For those of you with the same problem, but without a purse system, you can now keep track of your keys by sticking them on your light switch plate every time you come home. Sounds like a great idea to me!
Link Via GeekOSystem
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory announced today that they have observed a rare property in a special class of metals called multiferroics: they have both magnetic and electric properties, which normally don’t happen in the same material. Ferromagnets are, of course, magnetic metals, and ferroelectrics are materials that have a permanent electric polarization.
Now, scientists have found a new way that electric and magnetic properties can be coupled in a material. The group used extremely bright beams of x-rays at Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) to examine the electronic structure of a particular metal oxide made of yttrium, manganese, and oxygen. They determined that the magnetic-electric coupling is caused by the outer cloud of electrons surrounding the atom.
“Previously, this mechanism had only been predicted theoretically and its existence was hotly debated,” [Brookhaven physicist Stuart] Wilkins said.
In this particular material, the manganese and oxygen electrons mix atomic orbitals in a process that creates atomic bonds and keeps the material together. The researchers’ measurements show that this process is dependent upon the magnetic structure of the material, which in this case, causes the material to become ferroelectric, i.e. have an electric polarization. In other words, any change in the material’s magnetic structure will result in a change in direction of its ferroelectric state. By definition, that makes the material a multiferroic.
You’ll find more technical information at the Brookhaven National Laboratory site.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories made a whole herd of googly eyes that can be stuck on most metal surfaces temporarily. The possibilities are endless! So, they posted the instructions plus a gallery of examples. They also invite you to make your own and send in pictures of what you do with them. Where would you stuck your googly eyes? Link
The Magnetic Dead 3D Zombie Magnets – $14.95
We were warned, but nothing could truly prepare us for the massive zombie outbreak currently taking place at the NeatoShop. It is the end of the world as we know it! The Magnetic Dead 3D Zombie Magnets have finally arrived! AHHHHHHHHND we cannot contain our excitement over the launch of this new gruesomely fantastic line!
Do not be afraid! This 10-piece refrigerator magnet corpse is not just another useless Zombie toy. This flesh eating monster is always there when you need a hand, or a foot. You can use his body parts to hang up notes. When work has become mind numbingly dull you can spend hours upon hours mixing, matching, and dancing around his body parts. The Magnetic Dead 3D Zombie is your key to survival.
Get your Magnetic Dead 3D Zombie from the NeatoShop now. You don’t want to be left scavenging for one later. Can you really live without one?
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Zombie fun!
Someone has created quite an impressive hand-cranked machine that “manipulates small spherical rare earth magnets, slicing one at a time from the end of a long chain, moving it around a bit, then dropping it back to re-connect at the tail end of the chain”.
Make sure you don’t miss the amazing chain of magnets at the end of the video.
I made this machine for my father-in-law for his 75th birthday: astute viewers equipped with video analysis software and way too much time on their hands might find that the magnet drops 75mm from the tip of the slicer until caught by the lifter, and that the lifter then drops it through a 75mm long aluminum tube.
via Pusha
Miklós Zrínyi of Semmelweiss University in Budapest invented a flexible magnetic substance. By controlling the magnetic forces around objects made from this gel, one can move it around as needed. There are numerous potential applications:
Soft magnetic materials like this one could be used for artificial muscles in robots, or to replace rigid machine components, such as valves. Other teams are also working on making robots more flexible: an electroactive polymer was recently used to create a motor that rotates, without any gears or ratchets. A chemical gel that can walk like a caterpillar could also be used as a component of future robots.
Link via Popular Science
Magnetic Poetry – $11.95
Do you long to create your own captivating poetry, but lack the energy to come up with your own witty words? You need a Magnetic Poetry set from the NeatoShop. These fantastic 200+ word magnet sets come up with all the right words for you. All you need to do is arrange the words into creative sentences. You can finally satisfy your ravenous craving for poetry without ever having to use your delicious brain.
Magnetic Poetry is available in the following hilarious sets:
Link | Be sure to check out the NeatoShop more Zombie fun!
The design firm Rock Paper Robot made the Float Table. It’s composed of 64 wooden blocks that are linked together with steel cable but held in form with opposing magnets.
Link and Video via Technabob | Photo: GizmoDiva
The largest magnet in the world, located at CERN in Switzerland, weighs 12,500 tonnes. Scientists in India plan to build one weighing 50,000 tonnes in order to do neutrino research:
Neutrinos will interact with the iron – which will be layered in sheets – and spew out charged particles, whose paths will be bent by the iron’s magnetic field. About 30,000 detectors sandwiched between the sheets of iron will track these charged particles, providing information about the incident neutrinos.
INO will initially study atmospheric neutrinos, which are produced when cosmic rays smash into the upper atmosphere.
Unlike most neutrino detectors, such as the Super-Kamiokande in Japan or the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada, INO will be sensitive to both neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, which interact with matter in different ways.
Link via Gizmodo | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user sparr0 used under Creative Commons license
Medical researchers were able to disrupt the moral judgments of test subjects by subjecting the part of the brain responsible for such decisions to magnetic forces:
For their experiment, the scientists had 20 subjects read several dozen different stories about people with good or bad intentions that resulted in a variety of outcomes.
One typical story was about a boyfriend who leads his girlfriend across a bridge. In some versions, the boyfriend harmlessly walked his girlfriend across the bridge with no ill effect. In other cases, the boyfriend intentionally led the girlfriend along so she would break her ankle. The subjects used a seven point scale — one being forbidden and seven completely permissible — to record whether they through the situation was morally acceptable or not.
While the subjects read the story, the scientists applied a magnetic field using a method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. The magnetic fields created confusion in the neurons that make up the RTPJ, said Young, causing them to fire off electrical pulses chaotically.
Link via Alphecca | Image: NASA
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has quite a few neat things you can do with magnets. Some are really artful, some are great for teaching purposes, and here’s one I’ll definitely use sometime:
Find studs in your walls
Move a magnet over the wall until it finds a screw or nail head under the paint. You don’t even need to mark the wall– you can just leave the magnet there until you’ve drilled your holes.
Watch this series of slow-motion videos in which 90 small magnets are laid out in a matrix. Then another magnet is dropped on top, which upsets the matrix and causes the magnets to realign, assembling themselves into, um, whatever it is that magnets naturally assemble into.
I know my description is confusing; but take my word, it’s pretty cool. Link -via Unique Daily
