Animals and the Magnetic Field of the Earth
	The Earth has a magnetosphere that affects the life of most creatures on Earth. Earth’s magnetism is very weak, from 0.3 gauss at the Equator to 0.7 gauss at the Poles. Researchers discovered magnetic bacteria living in the ponds and lakes, presenting a chain of magnetic crystals inside their cells. Those located in the Northern Hemisphere swim in the direction of the magnetic north, while those from the Southern Hemisphere swim in the ... [read more >>]
	24 March 2008, 16:36GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Do Bats Detect and Use the Earth's Magnetic Field?
	Without a map or GPS, we are completely lost in the middle of nowhere. But many species, such as the mole rat, birds, fish, amphibian, have a magnetic compass. Bats have it too, and a new research shows how these mammals can feel the polarity of a magnetic field, detecting the difference between north and south. This cooperation between researchers from China and New Zealand sheds light on the bats’ long-distance navigation, foraging a ... [read more >>]
	24 September 2007, 06:49GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

What Killed My Hard Disk?
	According to researchers working at a joined project of the University of California and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, cited by ITPro, most hard disk drive failures are produced by phenomena called "magnetic avalanches" and their better understanding could lead to hard disk dri ... [read more >>]
	19 July 2007, 03:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

One of the Largest Giant Squid Washed up on Australian Beach
	Scientists had a rare occasion to study one of the most impressive marine animals, which gave birth to so many legends among sailors throughout history, a large giant squid that washed up to shore on a remote Australian beach, reported Reuters. It was really a fine specimen, but unfortunately the tentacles had been badly damaged, preventing an accurate determination of the total length. However, "it's a whopper,&quo ... [read more >>]
	11 July 2007, 05:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

First Time Pictures of the Complex Geometry on Superconductor Surfaces
	The first pictures of the spatial distribution of a magnetic field penetrating a superconductor were presented by a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. They show strange two-dimensional equilibrium patterns and intricate models. Soap-foam like structures display on the surface of superconductors were now related to the macroscopic physical properties, magnetism being the most important, in ... [read more >>]
	09 July 2007, 09:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Can a Magnet Change the Color of a Liquid?
	Nanotechnology is full of surprises and new applications are discovered every day. One of the most unusual is the recent experiment of a team of scientists who were able to make a magnet change the color of a liquid, turning it from coffee-brown to orange, then green and finally dark blue. The liquid is actually a solution of iron oxide in water and this is the first time anyone has proven such a strange effect of magnetism. Yadong Yin ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 09:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

First 3D Picture of Magnetic “Dance” Above Earth
	For the first time, scientists from the European Space Agency obtained tri-dimensional pictures of a spectacular magnetic "dance" above the Earth, caused by a phenomenon known as "magnetic reconnection." The Cluster mission is a European Space Agency (ESA) unmanned space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation. Using a pioneering te ... [read more >>]
	29 June 2007, 09:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Smallest Superconducting Device in the World
	Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials at extremely low temperatures, characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field. They are thought to appear usually below -140 degrees Celsius. Superconductors are used in many applications, like MRI medical imaging scanners, levitating trains and power lines. A group of researchers in the Netherlands created t ... [read more >>]
	20 June 2007, 02:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Electric Hats Against Cancer
	Scientists have suspected for years that electric fields cause cancer. But new investigations show that in fact they could stop or even kill it. Low-intensity, intermediate-frequency electric fields were useful in fighting off an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The electric field strategy would eliminate tumors without invasive brain surgery and induce a more than double survival time in preliminary invest ... [read more >>]
	31 May 2007, 03:00GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Hot Gas and Sound Waves Escape Sun's Surface through Magnetic Portals
	A mystery about the interior of the Sun lasting for centuries has been solved by scientists at National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA. They now proved that sound waves escape the interior of the sun and form fountains of hot gas that shape and provide fuel for a region of the sun's atmosphere. This thin region, called chromosphere, appears as a ruby red "ring of fire" around the moon during a total solar eclipse and ... [read more >>]
	30 May 2007, 15:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Sun Is Sending Fractal Messages About Its Storm Season
	Every 11 years, the Sun experiences its own "storm season," with violent explosions in its atmosphere, with an energy equivalent to a billion megatons and travelling towards Earth at about 1 million km per hour (about 0.05% the speed of light), though sometimes much faster. Predicting such events is not easy, but now, plasma astrophysicists at the University of Warwick have found that key information about the Sun’s "st ... [read more >>]
	26 May 2007, 08:02GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Magnetic Fields Can Be Manipulated with Soundwaves
	Present information technologies rely on electrons for carrying process data and information, but, as silicon technology is reaching its physical limits, researchers are looking for alternatives. Another emerging field is "spintronics", that deals with the use of the "spin" of an electron for storing, processing and communicating information, and it has known an important recent advance that may one day ... [read more >>]
	28 April 2007, 05:50GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

By 2008, Earth Will Run Short of Oil
	That's it. The World's natural abundance tap is going to turn off. Between 2008 and 2018, the world will experience a last year of high oil production followed by a constant drop, as it is depicted by a new model made by Fredrik Robelius, a Swedish physicist and petroleum engineer at the University of Uppsala. In 1956, the American geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted that U.S. oil reserves would reach a maximum with ... [read more >>]
	18 April 2007, 05:46GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Earth Had a Magnetic Field Even 3.2 Billion Years Ago
	The findings, which are contrary to previous studies, suggest that even in its earliest stages, the Earth was already well protected from the solar wind, which can strip away a planet's atmosphere and bathe its surface in lethal radiation. "The intensity of the ancient magnetic field was very similar to today's intensity. These values suggest the field was surprisingly strong and robust. It's interesting because it ... [read more >>]
	05 April 2007, 08:18GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

World's Strongest Magnet
	It will be the world’s strongest magnet for neutron experiments, eclipsing the 15-tesla system now in use. The new, high-field magnet, which is based on the magnet lab’s Series-Connected Hybrid concept, will be housed at the Berlin Neutron Scattering Center. The magnet will produce a magnetic field between 25 tesla and 30 tesla — more than half a million times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field, and will be finished in 2011. T ... [read more >>]
	04 April 2007, 06:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia