Longevity
Daniel Chan (UCDHSC)

Nanotechnology and microscopy, 40x
These are nano-crystals formed by magnetic fluid consisting of a mixture of ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic nano-particles. A drop of this magnetic fluid was placed on a glass slide and exposed to an external magnet. Magnetic particles became magnetized and formed tiny magnetic needles parallel to the magnetic field lines. Normally, when the external magnetic field is removed, tiny magnetic needles formed by superparamagnetic particles will disperse again because of Brownian motions of tiny particles. However, in this preparation, some magnetic needles persisted due to the presence of geomagnetism from the earth acting on the ferromagnetic particles. Eventually the nano-needles and nano-particles crystallized into some interesting structures when left untouched. The crystal structures in the center resemble a Chinese character meaning Longevity (see lower right).

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