Browse Physics

New search for hypothetical particle focuses on old rocks where monopole abundance should be higher.

A proposed design for a cylindrical shell with unusual magnetic properties offers a way to concentrate magnetic field energy.

An array of bar magnets that rotate on hinges serves as a model of a magnetic material.

An improved version of a technique for folding tiny objects from a thin membrane uses a magnetic field to affect the shape. The membrane wraps around a droplet of fluid that distorts in response to the field.

Creating a temperature difference in an arrangement of semiconductors generates a circulating current and a magnetic field, according to simulations. The effect may account for some inefficiency in electronic devices.

Liquid sodium agitated gently in a rotating tank can significantly amplify a magnetic field. The experiment is the first step toward demonstrating a self-sustaining field in a low-turbulence fluid, which may be analogous to Earth’s core.

A magnetic “ratchet” can transport tiny beads along a surface while also controlling the amount of random motion in the perpendicular direction.

Heat and a magnetic field cause liquid lithium to swirl rapidly, an effect that could be useful in fusion reactors.

Experiments demonstrate that a single electron can inhabit a site on a graphite surface where the carbon atom is missing. Such electrons could lead to new and useful types of magnetism.

A feeble light beam reverses the magnetism of small regions of a magnetic semiconductor, raising new possibilities for using light in magnetic data storage.

A new porous material changes shape in response to a magnetic field and could be lighter and cheaper than others on the market.

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics recognizes the discovery of giant magnetoresistance, which allowed dramatic improvements in memory density for disk drives (revised 23 October).

A theory proposes a new way in which a material could allow magnetic and electric fields to influence one another–a property with great potential for new devices.

In a step toward faster and smaller computer memories, researchers pushed the wall between two magnetic regions at over 100 meters per second, 100 times faster than ever before.

A tank of stirred liquid sodium generates a magnetic field even though it’s highly turbulent–a condition closer to real dynamos in planets, stars, and galaxies, but harder to simulate in the lab.

Two experiments in 1946, showing how electromagnetic waves could flip atomic nuclei, eventually led to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Images of magnetic surfaces grown one atomic layer at a time reveal surprising magnetic patterns.

A new technique measures the velocity of electrons in an electric current.

A magnetic field can sustain a single, isolated hump on the surface of a magnetic fluid–a new type of solitary feature with parallels in heated fluids and shaking beds of sand.

Researchers have reduced the magnetic field needed to induce a “colossal” change in resistance–an effect that might improve data storage devices.