Magnetism

Many people are already creeped out by quadruped robots, which walk on four legs instead of rolling on wheels or tracks. Well, the MARVEL robot likely won't do much to change such feelings, as it can walk straight up ferromagnetic metal walls.

Rare earth elements are vital for electronics, but they’re in short supply. Now scientists have recreated a promising alternative – a “cosmic magnet” that normally takes millions of years to form in meteorites is cooked up in the lab in seconds.

Five years ago we heard about the compact millo blender, which was reportedly only 25% as loud as a regular blender. Well, the new millo air is claimed to be even slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, and to produce no motor noise at all.

An exotic state of matter originally hypothesized almost 50 years ago has been observed for the first time. Created by Harvard researchers, this material called quantum spin liquid could eventually help improve quantum computers.

Currently, most powered prosthetic limbs are controlled by electrodes in the user's residual stump. An experimental new MIT system, however, is claimed to work better by replacing those electrodes with implanted magnetic beads.

When it comes to contraceptives, men typically have to remember to use a condom, or get a difficult-to-reverse vasectomy. There may soon be a new option, however, in the form of injected particles that are magnetically guided to the testes.

German company Mahle says its new magnet-free, inductively-powered electric motor will be cheap, zero-maintenance and highly efficient across a broad range of operating conditions – without using any rare-earth metals at all.

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.

Graphene has a lot of useful properties, but magnetism isn’t usually one of them. Now, researchers have managed to induce an “artificial magnetic texture” in graphene, which could have major implications for the emerging field of spintronics.

Although various groups are working on nanoparticles that could be used for directed drug delivery via the bloodstream, most of those particles are made to "go with the flow." Now, however, researchers have created ones that can travel upstream.

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.

Scientists at the University of Utah have come up with a relatively low-tech solution for air quality monitoring, demonstrating how the buildup of magnetic particles on tree leaves can be used to gauge the quality of the surrounding air.