Magnetic field

Compasses point north – that’s a pretty constant fact of life. But it hasn’t always been the case, as the north and south poles flip on a semi-regularly basis. Exactly how long this process takes has been up for debate, and now a new study suggests it happens far more slowly than previously thought.

In about five billion years’ time, the Sun will grow into a red giant, destroy the Earth and become a white dwarf star. But according to a new study, any aliens out there might still be able to pick up radio waves from Earth's planetary core – for up to a billion years.

A team from Stanford has shown that graphene arranged in a specific way can generate a magnetic field. That’s surprising enough, but it turns out this particular form of magnetism has previously only been theorized.

Physicists have been hunting for dark matter for decades. Hypothetical particles called axions are a long-standing candidate, but a new experiment has now found that they don’t exist – at least within a certain mass range.

A new study indicates that the Sun's magnetic field is 10 times more powerful than previously thought. By analyzing a solar flare using the Swedish Solar Telescope David Kuridze was able to determine that the magnetic field is an order of magnitude greater than measured by Earthbound instruments.

Magnetoreception, or the ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field, pops up throughout the animal kingdom, but it’s generally thought to be something humans missed out on. But new research has found changes in human brain wave activity that seems to be in response to a changing magnetic field.

Scientists at the US NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) bureau have had to update its World Magnetic Model (WMM) almost a year early because the Earth's north magnetic pole is moving faster than predicted, which could affect global navigation.

The Earth is almost 4.5 billion years old, but it’s young at heart – literally. Researchers from the University of Rochester have now dated the solid inner core of the planet to just 565 million years, making it a relative toddler compared to the rest of Earth.

When you imagine robots, you probably aren’t picturing stretchy meshes that can float on water, but that’s exactly what researchers have developed. These soft structures are 3D printed and embedded with magnetic particles that let them stretch and compress to pick up and move small objects.

​Although exercise is the best way of building muscle, there are cases where people need some help – such people can include those who are frail, or are laid up by injuries. That's where a new prototype device comes in, that uses magnetic fields to "fool" muscles into thinking they're being used.

Refrigerator technology hasn’t changed much in decades. Now researchers in Europe have shown promising early results with an experimental cooling system that uses magnetic fields and shape-shifting memory alloys.

A brown dwarf was recently downgraded to planet status (albeit a huge one), and now astronomers have discovered that it generates an enormous magnetic field, which could provide a new tool in the search for exoplanets.