Magnetic nanoparticles have been prepared by various soft chemical methods including self-assembly. The bare or surface-modified particles find applications in areas such as hyperthermia treatment of cancer and magnetic field-assisted radioactive chemical separation. We present here some of the salient features of processing of nanostructured magnetic materials of different sizes and shapes, their properties and some possible applications. The materials studied included metals, metal-ceramic composites, and ferrites. © Indian Academy of Sciences.