Sometimes, science moves forward with a spark of genius. Other times, it happens by accident—like when a graduate student shook a vial of liquid and ended up discovering a material that seems to rewrite the rules of nature. That’s how a team at the University of Massachusetts Amherst stumbled upon a remarkable self-shaping liquid that consistently forms the shape of an urn.
The discovery began when Anthony Raykh, a polymer science student, was studying a mixture of oil, water, and tiny magnetic nickel particles. Normally, when two liquids that don’t mix—like oil and water—are shaken together, they separate into layers or form tiny round droplets. This happens because liquids naturally try to minimize their surface area, following the basic principles of thermodynamics.
But in Raykh’s experiment, the shaken mixture didn’t behave normally. Instead of forming simple droplets, it repeatedly reshaped itself into a stable, vase-like form. Even after being shaken again and again, the self-shaping liquid returned to the same unusual structure.
That shape was more than just surprising—it appeared to defy the usual rules. According to thermodynamics, systems tend to move toward equilibrium by reducing their energy. In liquid mixtures, this usually means forming the smallest possible interface between two substances. But the urn shape has more surface area, not less.
Digging deeper, the researchers found that the nickel particles were the key. Because they are magnetic, the particles created tiny chains called dipoles—a magnetic effect where particles align and attract each other. These chains gathered at the surface of the liquid, locking it into the unusual shape and overriding the normal oil-and-water separation.
Importantly, the laws of physics weren’t actually broken. Instead, this is a rare case where interactions between individual particles influenced the larger behavior of the system.
The findings, published in Nature Physics, could have broad implications. Understanding how a self-shaping liquid works may one day lead to new smart liquids that adapt to external forces like magnets or motion.
