Magnetic field
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Geologists have pieced together an uncertain part of Earth’s ancient history. A team in Australia has found new evidence that suggests the cycle of supercontinents forming and breaking up only started about two billion years ago.
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Two years ago, astronomers revealed the first-ever direct images of a black hole. Now, the collaboration behind the historic image has released a new version that shows the polarization of the light around the object.
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An ancient tree fossil has offered scientists a peek into a moment 42,000 years ago when the Earth’s magnetic field went haywire. The study paints a picture of environmental chaos, influencing everything from an increase in cave paintings to the extinction of the Neanderthals.
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A crewed mission to Mars may be more practical thanks to a new rocket concept developed by Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), that uses magnetic fields to generate thrust.
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Exactly how some animals, such as birds, can detect magnetic fields remains a mystery. Now researchers in Japan may have found a crucial piece of the puzzle, making the first direct observations of live, unaltered cells responding to magnetic fields.
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Space is an incredibly weird place. From extreme exoplanets to stars with strange fates, clues to an old mystery and the beginnings of a brand new one, here are 10 of the weirdest astronomical discoveries that blew our minds this year.
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With an eye to improving quality of life for the elderly and frail, scientists at the National University of Singapore have discovered a molecule that can promote muscle health when subjected to weak magnetic fields.
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Researchers at the University of Tokyo have made magnetic tape using a new material, which allows higher storage density and more protection against interference, as well as a new way to write to the tape using high frequency millimeter waves.
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A persistent scientific mystery over the past century has been exactly how some animals seemingly have the ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic field. A team of researchers are suggesting the magnetic-sensing bacteria could be symbiotically generating this novel sense.
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Astronomers have detected the strongest magnetic field ever observed in the universe. Studying X-ray signals from a neutron star, the team calculated that its magnetic field is tens of millions of times stronger than any created in a lab on Earth.
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Researchers have for the first time managed to use electricity to switch on magnetism in a material that’s normally non-magnetic. This could be a step towards making electronic components out of common materials that might not otherwise be suitable.
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Astronomers at NASA and ESA have discovered the youngest pulsar known. This celestial child is a mere 240 years old, and its birth would have been visible on Earth at the time as a supernova. This little star is known as Swift J1818.0−1607.