Eli5 – iron coated sand made to flow up hill in strange new experiment – can someone explain what the practical implications are?

Question

https://www.sciencealert.com/iron-coated-sand-made-to-flow-up-hill-in-strange-new-experiment

I read the above article, can anyone please help me to understand the practical applications here?

In: 6

Answer 1

I have no idea of any practical application.

I think the headline “Iron-Coated ‘Sand’ Made to Flow Up Hill in Strange New Experiment” is misleading because it makes it sound like the spontaneous motion of the sand without any external force.

If you read the paper you see it happened in the presence of a rotating magnetic field and the speed increased if the field was stronger. So the energy to move against gravity will be from the magnetic field.

So an article headline that I think tries to get you to think about perpetual motion or energy generation. That is not what the discovery is about, it is about making a lot of particles collectively move when an external force is applied

I am not saying it could not have a practical application or explain a new way magnetic particles interact that can be useful.

I might be interpreting the headline incorrectly but I would call it clickbait.