Latest Magnetostatics Stories
A team of Virginia Commonwealth University scientists has discovered a "˜magnetic superatom' "“ a stable cluster of atoms that can mimic different elements of the periodic table "“ that one day may be used to create molecular electronic devices for the next generation of faster computers with larger memory storage.The newly discovered cluster, consisting of one vanadium and eight cesium atoms, acts like a tiny magnet that can mimic a single manganese atom in magnetic strength while...
In the race to develop the next generation of storage and recording media, a major hurdle has been the difficulty of studying the tiny magnetic structures that will serve as their building blocks. Now a team of physicists at the University of California, Davis, has developed a technique to capture the magnetic "fingerprints" of certain nanostructures "“ even when they are buried within the boards and junctions of an electronic device. This breakthrough in nanomagnetism was...
Remote controlled with a magnetic field, aggregates of plastic particles on a microchip function like stirrers and pumpsSometimes physicists resort to tried and trusted model-making tricks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the University of Stuttgart and the Colorado School of Mines have constructed micromachines using the same trick that model makers use to get ships into a bottle where the masts and rigging of the sailing ship are not erected until it is in the...
Scientists crack secret of unusual magnetic resonance, key to enhanced MRIsIn developing a model to explain the motion of atoms in a magnetic field, scientists have overcome a decades-old obstacle to understanding a key component of magnetic resonance. The new understanding may eventually lead to better control of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and higher resolution MRI diagnoses.Collaborators at Ohio State University in Columbus and three institutions in France--the Centre National de la...
Every so often, Earth's magnetic field flips on its head, turning the magnetic North Pole into the South Pole and vice versa. It last happened 780,000 years ago, and is predicted to occur again in about 1,500 years ... maybe. The overall frequency is hard to predict - there was one period in Earth's history when the field didn't reverse for 30 million years. Why these flip-flops happen at all is a great riddle, but a new hypothesis on the origins of the...
International study elucidates the relationship between migratory birds, light and Earth's magnetic fieldA team of researchers at Arizona State University and the University of Oxford are the first to model a photochemical compass that may simulate how migrating birds use light and Earth's weak magnetic field to navigate. The team reports in the April 30, 2008, online issue of Nature that the photochemical model becomes sensitive to the magnitude and direction of weak magnetic fields similar...
MU professor receives part of $6.5 million to research nanomagnetic devicesA modern computer contains two different types of components: magnetic components, which perform memory functions, and semiconductor components, which perform logic operations. A University of Missouri researcher, as part of a multi-university research team, is working to combine these two functions in a single hybrid material. This new material would allow seamless integration of memory and logical functions and is...
3-D images are not only useful in medicine; the observation of internal structures is also invaluable in many other fields of scientific investigation. Recently, researchers from the Hahn-Meitner-Institute (HMI) in Berlin in cooperation with University of Applied Sciences in Berlin have succeeded, for the first time, in a direct, three-dimensional visualization of magnetic fields inside solid, non-transparent materials. This is announced by Nikolay Kardjilov and colleagues in the current...
UC Davis researchers studying cores of sediment collected 40 years ago have found evidence for magnetic field vortices in the Earth's core beneath the South Pole. The results contrast with earlier studies at lower latitudes, and could lead to a better understanding of processes in the core.The results came from a seabed sediment core collected by the U.S. Navy in the Antarctic Ross Sea in 1968 as part of Operation Deep Freeze. Samples from the core, covering almost 2.5 million years of the...
Magnetic orientation is critical to the migratory success of many bird species. By studying the influence of light on the ability of migratory birds to orient to magnetic signals, researchers have found clues to suggest that birds' orientation abilities may be more complex than previously thought and that birds may be able to interpret magnetic signals by more than one mechanism. The work is reported in Current Biology by a team including Thorsten Ritz, of the University of California,...
