Chemistry is everywhere in our daily life -- in the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the energy we use.

UNESCO: Message by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova

The researchers twigged that this phenomenon could be used to measure density and, as they report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they set about this task by erecting a stack of two off-the-shelf neodymium magnets separated by a vertical vial of paramagnetic fluid.

ECONOMIST: Monitor