But when it comes to using the turbulent flow of liquid metal rather than well-behaved cables and wires, the experiment becomes rather harder.

ECONOMIST: Recreating the planet's magnetic field in a laboratory

Satellites at Mars have long captured images of channels on the planet's surface that were cut by some kind of flow, assumed to be liquid water.

BBC: Curiosity Mars rover beams images of ancient streambed

Doshi has recruited engineers from Miami and Atlanta for his venture, but he got some key technology nearby: To perfect the design of a filter, he got computational engineers at the SimCenter at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to model thousands of air- and liquid-flow variables.

FORBES: Back on Track

Instead of slabs of gel, it uses capillaries filled with a liquid polymer, so that continuous flow is possible without the need to change slabs.

ECONOMIST: Genetic warfare