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Tech NewsGadgetsSound Reactive Bluetooth Speaker Uses Magnetic Ferrofluid to Become a Real-Life Winamp Visualizer
Years before the iPod was a thing, many of us relied on an app called Winamp to listen to MP3s. It was free, it was simple, but most of us used it for its visualizers that created complex, trippy animations synced to our music. Artist Dakd Jung has created a real-life version of those visualizers … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightSee a Black Hole’s Magnetic Fields in New Image From the Event Horizon Telescope
In April 2019, the world was spellbound, if only for a moment, by an ominous void encircled by a half-halo of light. It was the first direct image of a black hole; more specifically, a supermassive gravitational abyss at the core of Messier 87, a galaxy in the constellation Virgo some 54 million light-years from … Continued
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ScienceHealthKids Just Can’t Stop Eating These Magnets
Recent research provides a clear example of the dangers of deregulation. The study found that poison center cells involving children swallowing high-powered magnets went up substantially after 2017 in the U.S., following the reversal of a ban on these products enacted years earlier. The high-powered magnets (10 to 30 times more powerful than the typical … Continued
By Ed Cara -
SciencePhysics & ChemistryWhat Are Venus Flytraps Doing With Magnetic Fields?
A team of researchers recently strapped a dismembered carnivorous plant to a sensitive instrument in Berlin, in a room that shuts out the world’s magnetic noise. It was a Venus flytrap’s “jaw”—really a specialized leaf—and when the team turned up the heat, the jaw summoned the energy to try to close. In that moment, a … Continued
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EartherEarth ScienceMagnetic Clues in Australian Rocks Suggest Plate Tectonics Began Over 3 Billion Years Ago
Without plate tectonics, our planet wouldn’t have continents, mountains, and possibly even life itself. New evidence suggests this geological process began at least 3.2 billion years ago, a surprisingly early origin. Geologists debate exactly when our planet’s tectonic plates began to shift. Estimates vary wildly, ranging from 4 billion to 1 billion years ago, with … Continued
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SciencePhysics & ChemistryScientists in Florida Make the World’s Strongest Magnet
Scientists have broken the record for the strongest continuous magnetic field, according to a new research paper. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or MagLab, at Florida State University runs the world’s strongest continuous magnet for use by scientists, at 45 tesla—around 10 times stronger than a hospital MRI machine. Now, researchers at the lab … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightJupiter’s Moons Leave Signature Spots in Its Aurorae
Despite being wildly different from Earth in almost every way, Jupiter does feature some familiar phenomena—including aurorae, what we call the Northern and Southern lights. But Jupiter’s aurorae have something Earth’s don’t: strange features caused by the Jovian moons. Scientists analyzing data from the Juno spacecraft spotted some of these anomalies in action. They saw … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
The Earth’s Magnetic Poles Are Not About to Flip, and Here’s Why
Despite recent panic surrounding the potential reversal of our planet’s magnetic poles, new evidence suggests it’s probably not the impending doom it sounds like. Implausible as it sounds, public worry about the poles flipping seems to be ever-present, typically backed by real evidence of the Earth’s magnetic field weakening. These outbreaks of concern almost always … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Scientists Model Rare Ball Lightning With Help From Tangled ‘Skyrmion’ Quasiparticle
There’s an eerie and incredibly rare phenomenon witnessed by few that has long puzzled scientists: ball lightning. These flashes, which typically appear in the evenings during thunderstorms and look like small, bright spheres, have gone mostly unexplained aside from some theories. But now, using some of the most mind-bending physics around, physicists think that they’ve … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Experimenters Observe Strange Magnetic Phenomenon First Predicted in the 1930s
Scientists have experimentally observed a physical concept that was first theorized in 1931 for the first time—one that could result in important applications in quantum computing and even the study of string theory. Maybe. A team of researchers from around the world worked together to discover these so-called Bethe strings—essentially, a special behavior that can … Continued
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Tech News
Man Carrying Oxygen Tank Dies After Being Sucked Into MRI Machine
MRI machines use a powerful magnetic field to produce internal images of the human body. The magnetic fields are so powerful that hospitals take great care to ensure no iron-containing metals come near the machines while they are in use. In rare cases, however, mistakes happen. This past weekend, an Indian man visiting a sick … Continued
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Tech News
Quantum Mechanics Could Shake Up Our Understanding of Earth’s Magnetic Field
Earth’s magnetic field does way more than guide our compasses and cause occasional worry. It’s part of the reason there’s life at all on this planet—it protects us from harmful solar radiation that might otherwise blow our ozone layer away. But there’s still a lot about the magnetic field scientists don’t understand. Most importantly, they’re … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Our Planet’s Magnetic Poles Aren’t Reversing Any Time Soon
Over the past couple of hundred years, the strength of the Earth’s geomagnetic field has been waning, leading scientists to wonder if our planet’s polarity is on the verge of flipping. A new study suggests this won’t happen in the near future—and that the intensity of today’s field is uncharacteristically strong. Predicting a geomagnetic flip … Continued
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io9
Hold This Magnet In Your Hand and It Stops Being a Magnet
If you love a magnet, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s due to a temperature called Curie. Look, I’m not a poet. Just read this. Magnetism requires a degree of order. A magnet is a piece of metal in which the magnetic moment of its atoms are in line. We’ve talked … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
The Very First Wormhole Device — For Magnets!
Physicists have created a wormhole device that can tunnel a magnetic field through space. It sounds like Star Trek, but we won’t be zapping humans across the universe anytime soon. Still, the breakthrough could revolutionize certain magnet-based technologies, including MRIs. Wormholes are wrinkles in the fabric of space and time that can connect two different … Continued
By Maddie Stone
