The Backyard Scientist Pours Molten Aluminum Into a Tank of Water Beads to Create Unique Metal Designs

The latest experiment by The Backyard Scientist involved pouring molten aluminum into a fish tank full of water beads to see what kind of interesting designs were created as the molten metal flows down.

I packed a fishtank completely full of water balls (water beads, water balz, spitballs…). Im guessing there are over 10,000 in there! Anyway, I melted a bunch of old aluminum pipes and poured them into the fishtank hoping to create a cool design. And it worked perfectly! These are really unique, no two pieces are alike.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid in 1995 in San Francisco and is currently based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Threads and sharing photos on Instagram.