Scientific papers written as dialogues evoke Platonist philosophical discourses and are foreseen as elementary forms of expression in neoclassical scientific renaissance. Here we report on a study of the Brazil nut effect in a series of macroscopic and microscopic systems in the form of a play in three acts. The nut effect predicting the segregation of smaller grains at the bottom of the mixture and larger ones at the top was observed in a polydisperse mix of manually shaken playground pebbles, albeit following different kinetics than in an agitated pile of chess pieces. Common sense predicts that vertical, gravity-driven segregation in colloidal dispersions with heterogeneous particle size distributions is such that larger particles would settle toward the bottom and the lighter ones cream at the top. Here we refute this expectation and demonstrate that segregation of colloidal particles in the vertical direction conforms to the Brazil nut effect when the agitation is delivered in the forms of vortex mixing or audio vibration, but not when the colloids are manually shaken. The effect is demonstrated on aqueous dispersions of hydroxyapatite and iron oxide nanoparticles. Kinetic experiments showed that segregation increases with the agitation time in mixtures of pebbles and with the post-agitation aging time in fine particle colloids. The particle size gradient established due to agitation-induced segregation led to a corresponding gradient in optoelectronic properties—band gap, conductivity, lattice acoustics—in the vertical direction of the colloidal column for both types of nanoparticles. Such morphological gradients induced by the Brazil nut effect can be harnessed as affordable and facile templates for the synthesis of functionally gradient materials. Discussion of the mechanism and the application potential of the observed effect in colloidal and coarse systems is enriched with a literature review of this curious effect and entwined with the literary elements of the dramaturgical narrative involving a family of scientist in exile from mainstream scientific institutions: the mother, the father, an elementary school boy and a kindergarten girl. The narrative conforms in its structure to the shape of a Brazil nut and presents the first research study whose findings are enacted through a dream. The play questions the humaneness and creative prospects of modern science and celebrates children’s science projects performed with meager resources and a plentiful of imagination, showing that they could be gateways to important scientific discoveries.

以对话形式撰写的科学论文唤起了柏拉图主义的哲学话语，并被视为新古典科学复兴中的基本表达形式。在这里，我们以三幕剧的形式报告了一系列宏观和微观系统中巴西坚果效应的研究。在手动摇动的操场鹅卵石的多分散混合物中观察到预测混合物底部较小颗粒和顶部较大颗粒分离的坚果效应，尽管遵循的动力学与搅拌的棋子堆不同。常识预测，在具有不均匀粒径分布的胶体分散体中，重力驱动的垂直分离是这样的，较大的颗粒会沉降到底部，而较轻的颗粒会在顶部呈奶油状。在这里，我们反驳了这种预期，并证明当以涡流混合或音频振动的形式进行搅拌时，胶体颗粒在垂直方向上的分离符合巴西坚果效应，但在手动摇动胶体时则不然。该效果在羟基磷灰石和氧化铁纳米颗粒的水性分散体上得到证实。动力学实验表明，在鹅卵石混合物中，分离随着搅拌时间的增加而增加，在细颗粒胶体中随着搅拌后老化时间的增加而增加。由于搅拌引起的分离而建立的粒径梯度导致两种类型纳米颗粒在胶体柱的垂直方向上的光电特性（带隙、电导率、晶格声学）相应的梯度。这种由巴西坚果效应引起的形态梯度可以用作合成功能梯度材料的廉价且简便的模板。对胶体和粗糙系统中观察到的效应的机制和应用潜力的讨论通过对这种奇怪效应的文献回顾得到丰富，并与涉及从主流科学机构流亡的科学家家族​​的戏剧叙事的文学元素交织在一起：妈妈、爸爸、一个小学男生和一个幼儿园女生。叙事的结构符合巴西坚果的形状，并展示了第一项通过梦来实现其发现的研究。