kodama

t's the creation of Japanese artist Sachiko Kodama. Let's talk about the oil. It's not exactly oil, it's ferrofluid, which is oil laced with bits of iron oxide. When the magnets are turned on, the little bits of iron (and the oil with them) are pulled by a magnetic field into columns and shapes that produce the "tree."
The oil and iron, steered by the magnets, become "branches." Surface tension in the oil causes those branches to pull in on themselves, forming the sharp "tips." The "towers" Sachiko built create the spiral effect. There's nothing that sophisticated about this scientifically. Ms. Kodama just knows how to create beautiful things using electromagnetism as her paintbrush.npr