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Turtles are one of many species that use their sense of Earth's magnetic field to navigate great distances. But the magnetic field is constantly drifting, and that can cause major confusion in such a long-lived species. Here's their ingenious solution. More »
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If case you haven't seen it yet, here's the quantum levitation (or, more accurately, quantum locking) video that's taken the internet by storm in the last 36 hours. More »
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A hundred years ago next week, superconductivity was discovered. Now we know electric charge can flow through ultra-cold objects without resistance. How better to celebrate this anniversary than with an awesomely crazy idea about ultra-hot superconductors forming in deep space? More »
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Finally a story about birds that doesn't involve them falling out of the sky. We know that robins, like many other animals, uses the Earth's magnetic field to navigate, but we don't know how. The answer could be quantum mechanics. More »
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Find out what Maxwell's Demon is, and how some physicists are channeling it. More »
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Armed with a gigantic, spinning steel ball, researchers hope to simulate the Earth's magnetic field and discover how likely it is that our planet's magnetic polarity will flip sometime soon. Our magnetic field has reversed polarity in the past many times, though not in the last 780,000 years. So it's unclear what might happen. Science writer Clive Thompson speculates that it could be "pretty nasty." More »
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Forget the ozone layer, global warming, and all of the other things environmentalists whine about: the one thing holding life together here on Earth is its powerful magnetic field. And for the past 150 years that humans have been measuring it, our only line of defense against deadly cosmic and solar radiation has been mysteriously weakening. Now, new research says the situation is even more dire than we thought. Looking back 2,000 years into the past, geophysicists have calculated that the field's been weakening the entire time, and that we've got about 500 years to go before it's gone entirely. More »
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We've long seen the results of solar flares on Earth, but haven't been able to predict when they'll strike next. New research released last week has given us a better understanding of solar weather. The massive, looping jets of superheated gas that erupt from the sun are driven by giant magnetic structures that extend out beyond the sun itself. More »
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Adidas yesterday announced the rollout of a new space-age soccer ball that knows where it is. As it rolls around the soccer field, the smart ball uses a magnetic field to figure out its location — particularly when it's near the goal — and relays the data to the referee. No more analyzing footage to figure out what happened: Just ask the ball. That's great, but I want the ballcam, guys. I want to see what your balls see. Sorry, it had to be said. Photo by KEN SHIMIZU/AFP/Getty Images. More »
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