[M.D. Holloway]

Sure - In grad school I took a course in viscoelasticity. The math wasn't fun but the labs were cool. It is pretty amazing what sorts of things can be made. By increasing/decreasing temperature, aggitation, electric current some materials thicken up or thin out.

We made this slurry that was as thin as water until you passed a magnet near it then it solidified. It was a slurry of iron filings held in suspension. We also made all sorts or visco-polymers that just didn't behave like you would think they should have - things that got thinner the colder they got - not something that you would expect.

To understand how it worked was headey stuff though. Material science is pretty cool.