How this 50-year-old NASA material could kill cancer

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(quiet electronic music) - [Narrator] This bizarre goo is called ferrofluid. And it really is the stuff of science fiction. It was created at NASA as a way to move fuel in outer space. And someday soon, it may be used to pilot medicine through your body. Today, well its uses are a little more mundane. But it certainly looks good on video. - They have these spikes that come out when a magnetic field is applied and they kind of look like alien structures (laughs). - [Narrator] Thomas Webster is the director of the Nanomedicine Laboratory at Northeastern University. And he'll be our guide through the wonders of this future goo. Ferrofluid is made of three main ingredients: magnetic nanoparticles like iron oxide, a special coating that keeps these particles from clumping together, and a water-based or oil-based liquid. What makes ferrofluid magical is that you can use a simple magnet to move it around from a distance without using pumps or wires. - So it is attractive for space or other, you know, deep sea environments. Environments that you can't touch or you can't get close to. - [Narrator] The first ferrofluid was invented by a NASA engineer named Steve Papell in the early 1960s. His idea was that if you add these magnetic nanoparticles to fuel, you can move it around in zero gravity with a magnetic field. That didn't really pan out, but since then ferrofluids have been used far and wide, in less sci-fi settings. You can find ferrofluids in hard drives because around a magnet, ferrofluid almost becomes like a solid, like a glue that seals things. In skateboards, ferrofluids are found in wheels to reduce friction, and in speakers the material buffers vibrations, enhancing the sound. (bass guitar purrs) But the future of biomedicine is where things get really exciting. Because the particles inside ferrofluid are so tiny, they can seep inside cells, including cancer cells. - [Thomas] If you can get a magnetic particle to go into a cancer cell, and you apply a magnetic field, then these materials can heat up, and they can kill the cancer cell. Whereas a normal cell, a healthy cell, does not die as quickly when that temperature increases. - [Narrator] And, there's another advantage. - Many conventional drugs that are used in cancer treatment will kill the cancer cells on the outside of a tumor, but if you can direct your magnetic field and focus high magnetic power at the center of the tumor, you can now get the ferrofluid to go in and kill the inside, and you have to kill the inside of a tumor or else it'll just grow back. - [Narrator] The applications are especially exciting for brain disease, because ferrofluids could help a cell, rather than destroy it. - [Thomas] In neural diseases, sometimes the neurons fail to connect with each other. We've seen in our studies that a ferrofluid can help that connection. - [Narrator] If ferrofluids can help neurons communicate better, they could help people recover from a stroke or cope with Alzheimer's disease. - You know, and that's very exciting to think about, because our treatments are even worse for problems in the brain right now than for cancer or for infections. - [Narrator] Webster and his team have tested ferrofluids mostly in mice. They still need to be proven safe enough for human trials. And there's still a lot we don't know. What happens if the nanoparticles end up in organs that we're not targeting? Webster says more research is needed, as well as more interest from medical companies. - We really have to get industry involved, right? We at universities could spend our lifetimes studying these things, but if we don't get industry excited, it'll just be another material that had a lot of hype and fails. - [Narrator] In the meantime, we'll just have to settle for hypnotizing YouTube videos, and daydreams about what comes next. (quiet electronic tones) Hey everyone, thanks for watching. Just a heads up that ferrofluid is actually pretty messy stuff, so if you decide to play with it on your own, just be prepared with some gloves, some eye protection, and clothing that you won't mind getting dirty. Also, there are a lot of shots that didn't make it into this video, and we've posted them on the link below and in the community tab on our new Verge Science YouTube channel, which you should subscribe to.
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Channel: Verge Science
Views: 542,703
Rating: 4.9376512 out of 5
Keywords: Ferrofluid, NASA, magnetic fluid, science, experiment, magnets, magnetic liquid, magnet, fluid, ferro, facts, science experiments, amazing, list, nasa news, nasa, physics, universe, education, space, spacex, mars, elon musk, verge science, the verge, vox, seeker, life noggin, Motherboard, Deep Look, Veritasium, SciShow, ASAP Science, Kurzgesagt
Id: yh6ZSQytxbU
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 4min 26sec (266 seconds)
Published: Tue Jun 12 2018
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