http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/magnetism http://io9.com/tag/magnetism

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 »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5873090&view=rss&microfeed=true

Magnetite is, as its name implies, one of the most naturally magnetic materials on earth. Millennia ago, it was what first clued scientists in to magnetism. But magnetite is also something of a mystery. At low temperatures, the rock completely stops all electricity. At last scientists have figured it out why. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5869405&view=rss&microfeed=true

The earth has naturally occurring magnetized rocks appearing, in part, because of its moving internal core which gives it a massive magnetic field. The moon has no such core, but it too has magnetized rocks. Planetary scientists believe, though, that the moon has its own ways of creating magnets. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5857151&view=rss&microfeed=true

This map shows areas on the globe where there are disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. Here, red indicates a stronger magnetic tug, and blue a weaker one (white lines are the edges of tectonic plates). As you can see, disturbances are fairly regularly distributed, but that doesn't stop UFO enthusiasts from saying aliens have a hand in these magnetic fluctuations. Science, however, has a slightly different explanation for why certain objects (including submarines) create a shift in the magnetic field. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5855702&view=rss&microfeed=true

Measuring systems are almost always arbitrary - even the orderly metric system is chopped up into random little pieces we call grams, kilograms, and tons. With the increased need for precision, it's necessary that everyone use the same random unit of mass for a kilogram. After a Nobel winning discovery, and decades of tireless research, scientists have managed to pin down a kilogram and an ampere. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5844977&view=rss&microfeed=true

Have you ever wondered what happens when you mix a liquid that becomes strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field with magnets and ordinary bubbles? No? Well, thankfully San Francisco designer Kim Pimmel did, because what you wind up with is this mesmerizing, otherworldly display of colorful capillary action. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5835433&view=rss&microfeed=true

Spin liquids are an exotic state of matter that can only exist in the world of quantum mechanics. They're a strange mess of spin states and superpositions that forces magnetism and anti-magnetism to simultaneously exist in millions of different configurations. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5831111&view=rss&microfeed=true

Birds, bees, and turtles all possess the ability to navigate by the Earth's magnetic field. Humans might actually possess the exact same magnetism-sensing hardware as these other creatures, as a light-sensitive protein taken from the human eye gave flies magnetovision. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5814137&view=rss&microfeed=true

What you're seeing in this beautiful short video are particles from a printer toner cartridge floating in water. The strange patterns come from the little flakes responding to magnets. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5796053&view=rss&microfeed=true

Superconductors are known for their complete lack of resistance to electrical flow. They also have less widely-known quirk — they make magnets levitate. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5785986&view=rss&microfeed=true

Every so often, people claim to be human magnets, able to attract and make metal objects stick to their bodies. It seems like a strange, physics-defying ability...but the perfectly simple explanation isn't quite so flattering to these supposed human magnets. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5771510&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Sun is entering a period of seriously intense solar activity, releasing huge volleys of charged particles and plasma blobs into space, including the recent Valentine's Day X-class flare, the most extreme in years. So how much of a threat do these flares really pose, and how prepared are we for a seriously disruptive solar storm? That, as it turns out, is a seriously tricky question to answer. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5765636&view=rss&microfeed=true

This image, snapped by the Japanese probe Hinode on February 1, looks way more terrifying than it actually is. Most of the top half of the Sun seems to have fallen into a massive black hole, but it's not quite that dramatic. It's actually a coronal hole, a gigantic opening that allows the Sun to vent excess gas. Still, I'd feel a lot better about this if there wasn't another gigantic hole down at the Sun's south pole. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5760052&view=rss&microfeed=true

The latest crazy doomsday theory is upon us, and unlike the two suns story, there isn't even really a grain of truth behind this one. This new theory says that the magnetic poles will shift in the near future (which, in all likelihood, they won't, at least not in human time scales), and that this will change our climate (which maybe it could, but not nearly as much as the drastic change we're already experiencing), all this will somehow create superstorms (no idea), and this somehow probably all ties into 2012...somehow. We feel it is our duty as skeptics and lovers of good science to point you in the direction of Phil Plait's epic takedown of this "theory" over at Bad Astronomy. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5756498&view=rss&microfeed=true

Mirrors are usually surfaces that reflect light, which means photons bounce off of them. But a new kind of magnetic mirror can reflect magnetized atoms - one at a time. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5609417&view=rss&microfeed=true

Click to viewThis map shows areas on the globe where there are disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. Here, red indicates a stronger magnetic tug, and blue a weaker one (white lines are the edges of tectonic plates). As you can see, disturbances are fairly regularly distributed, but that doesn't stop UFO enthusiasts from saying aliens have a hand in these magnetic fluctuations. Science, however, has a slightly different explanation for why certain objects (including submarines) create a shift in the magnetic field. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5060911&view=rss&microfeed=true