What Is Ferrofluid and How Does It Create Unique Optical Effects?

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This is describing a photograph I took, and I am not sure of the proper grammar to use at times. Should I put commas in the first sentence? Butcher it; why don'tcha? I want to make it best possible.
Ferrofluid is a superparamagnetic liquid composed of surfactant-encapsulated
nanoscale sub-domain magnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid with a high
magnetic permeability and very low magnetic hysteresis. In this photograph,
approximately five milliliters of ferrofluid was poured into a petri dish, and two N42
grade neodymium iron boron (Nd2Fe14B) rare-earth magnets were strategically
placed under a commercially printed watercolor painting of breaking waves. The
interaction of the magnets' fields, the surface tension of the ferrofluid, and the
Earth's gravitational field result in stable three-dimensional liquid spikes. Interesting optical effects are exhibited from the transparency, color (both as a function of depth), and curvatures of the ferrofluid, as well as the several different wavelengths of light projected onto specific regions of the photograph.
 
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Ferrofluids are superparamagnetic liquids composed of magnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid; therefore, ferrofluids have a high magnetic permeability and very low magnetic hysteresis.

Why are you being so damn verbose?
 
Not that it's a rule that many pay attention to anymore, or that anyone would notice, but the whole comprises the parts and the parts compose the whole.

"Ferrofluid is a superparamagnetic liquid that comprises surfactant-encapsulated..."
 
What Mk has seems to agree with that. 'X composes Y' iff 'Y is composed of X'. The former is in the so-called active voice; the latter is in the passive voice.
 
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When should I prefer to use the active/passive voice?
 
Mk said:
When should I prefer to use the active/passive voice?
I'm not really familair with the concepts people have introduced about this. But take a look at what placing an expression at the beginning of a sentence does.

(1) Rachel ate asparagus for an experiment.
(2) a. Asparagus, Rachel ate for an experiment.
(2) [/color]b. Asparagus was eaten by Rachel for an experiment.
(3) For an experiment, Rachel ate asparagus.

If it seems like (1) is about Rachel, (2a-b) are about asparagus, and (3) is about an experiment, great, that's what I was aiming for. As a rule of thumb, in English, to make a sentence S be about X, put X at the beginning of S, and to make S not be about X, don't put X at the beginning of S. I can't really say more. If you are dying for more, maybe this will help, or you can google 'topic' or 'topicalization'.
 
Ferrofluid is a superparamagnetic liquid. It is composed of surfactant-encapsulated, nanoscale, sub-domain magnetic particles. These are suspended in a carrier fluid with a high magnetic permeability and a very low magnetic hysteresis. In the experimental results shown in Fig.?,
approximately five millilitres of ferrofluid were poured into a petri dish. Next, two N42 grade neodymium iron boron (Nd2Fe14B) rare-earth magnets were placed under a print showing breaking waves. <Need to say why this print is used>The
interaction of the magnetic fields, together with the surface tension of the ferrofluid and the Earth's gravitational field are shown to result in stable three-dimensional liquid spikes. Moreover, interesting optical effects are observed. Namely, color, as a function of depth, and curvatures of the ferrofluid. Note that, the several different wavelengths of light projected onto specific regions of the photograph are also shown.

edit: btw, it's grammar!
 
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