Hasta La Ideas

I love lab geeks, because while we’re watching Jersey Shore and shopping for iPhone cases they’re pouring colored liquids into steaming beakers and discovering new materials. A thus-far-anonymous group of people in white coats have discovered that you can mix ferrite particles with a polyethylene gel, resulting in a soft, squishy magnet now being sold over at Inventables.

This unique magnet is soft and squeezable to the touch. In every other way it is like a normal magnet; it has a north and south pole, opposite poles attract, like poles repel, and it is attracted to standard magnets. Currently, these magnets are only available in a small round form and there are no specific markets where this technology is used. It was invented purely for the challenge of creating a soft, flexible magnet.

The hardness and strength of the magnet can be customized and injection molding is possible; however, the manufacturer currently only provides it in the form of round discs.

So what’s the application? I don’t know, my imagination’s limited; maybe they could use them on Jersey Shore or in some kind of iPhone case.

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