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October 18, 2006

Eye of God magnetically made

Next time you get the chance to peer through the Hubble telescope, see if you can find the object below. It's a vast reminder of the awesome power of magnets.

EyeofGod.jpg

Around 8000 light years away, it's is known variously as the "Eye of God" the "Hourglass Nebula", and more poetically, MyCn18.

According to the UK's Jodrell Bank Observatory the dramatic shapes of planetary nebulae are likely formed by magnetic fields acting on the dust formed by the disintegrating star.

October 17, 2006

Have magnet, will motor?

You know what it's like.

You find yourself stranded in the jungle, up a mountain or on a desert island with nothing but a few simple household items.

All you need is an electric motor for a way out of your predicament.

As the video above reveals you can build an electric motor with nothing but a battery, a nail, a wire and of course a magnet.

Then, fully equipped, you can helicoptor your way back to safety or something.

What a buzz.

October 10, 2006

Magnets required for teleportation

CNN is reporting scientists have managed to teleport significant-sized chunks of matter between two points half a metre apart.

The precise process employed by Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark is still unclear, but some claim magnetism was certainly involved.

Maybe this is what's happening in the alleged teleporting cat video below.

The cat in question looks like it's travelling between two magnets for sure.

October 07, 2006

Stick to the floor

Now, thanks to magnetism, floor tiles can be as easily changed as a rug.

A US company called Artistic Tiles has developed a system of floor tiles that need no mortar or grout or other sticky stuff to stick to the floor.

Instead, the tiles are attached a flexible rubber steel or galvanized sheet metal that lies between between the concrete, or whatever the floor is made from.

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You can rip up the floor and change it when ever you feel like changing the color from brown, to black and white cow spots.

Perhaps if you walked on such a floor wearing these you might find yourself rooted to the spot.

October 04, 2006

Magnets to chuck stuff into orbit?

Hot on the heels of the previous story speculating about the potential of gauss guns to shoot satellites into the sky comes this story from New Scientist detailing a scheme to do exactly that.

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A study by the US air force found that a huge ring of superconducting magnets (something like the above particle accelerator) could hurl satellites into space.

Probably make a great weapon too.

This magnet based system would reportedly be much cheaper than conventional rocket launches. But the intense g forces developed during launch might crush the payload like a tin can on a train track.