  Over the last decades, the use of magnetic nanoparticles in research and
commercial applications has increased dramatically. However, direct detection
of trace quantities remains a challenge in terms of equipment cost, operating
conditions and data acquisition times, especially in flowing conditions within
complex media. Here we present the in-line, non-destructive detection of
magnetic nanoparticles using high performance atomic magnetometers at ambient
conditions in flowing media. We achieve sub-picomolar sensitivities measuring
$\sim$30 nm ferromagnetic iron and cobalt nanoparticles that are suitable for
biomedical and industrial applications, under flowing conditions in water and
whole blood. Additionally, we demonstrate real-time surveillance of the
magnetic separation of nanoparticles from water and whole blood. Overall our
system has the merit of inline direct measurement of trace quantities of
ferromagnetic nanoparticles with so far unreached sensitivities and could be
applied in the biomedical field (diagnostics and therapeutics) but also in the
industrial sector.
