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.
Around 8000 light years away, it's is known variously as the "Eye of God" the "Hourglass Nebula", and more poetically, MyCn18.
Now you can hover sleep thanks to Janjaap Ruijssenaars, a Dutch architect who has invented a bed that levitates above the floor using powerful magnets. He claims it was inspired by the black monolith featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Apart from a few wires holding it in place, there's nothing between this thing and the floor apart from magnetism.
You can have one for just US$1,512,401.69.
No word if that price includes a timer that shuts off the current at the instant you wish to awake. Or if you get a backup generator.
It's not every day you see a photoshop competition with a Chick Magnet theme.
But today is that day.
The example above is described as a Jack Chick magnet.
Hmmmm.
Do magnets need to learn? Is there a school that teaches them their fascinating magnetic properties? Is that what Magnet Schools of America does?
No it's nothing like that.
Magnet schools (that's their logo above) make the very obvious assumption that all students do not learn in the same ways. So they set out to find a unifying theme or a different organizational structure for students with similar interest. They take the view that this will help students to learn more in all areas.
It all comes down to the theory that students will find such schools attractive.
Sounds like a great idea. Check out a detailed history here.
Following is a slightly edited contribution from Mr Henry Assen who suspects magnetism has something to do with an extraordinary phenomenon he has experienced. Can anyone explain it?
I wish to bring this phenomenon to your attention and request you for an explanation you might have to offer. Please see the annexed photos which might give you an idea of what it involves. These are genuine photos and can be demonstrated in front of you. This method has been employed in curing stress, headaches, migraine, etc... with over 60 % sucess.
Look at the shot below closely and you'll see the double-helix shape of the DNA molecule, the blueprint for life.
But this is a DNA nebula. It's 80 light years long, travelling at 1000 kilometers per second and located near the center of our galaxy.
It doesn't take much to make a DNA nebula. All you need is a very strong magnetic field, a rotating body, and a nebulous cloud of material positioned just right in space.
It's debatable whether you'll be able to replicate the effect with a couple of magnets in your basement.
You can learn a lot more about it here.
The town of Magnet in Nebraska USA has been in the media recently.
The big news there is they are producing a calendar featuring male residents in a variety of poses.
Nude.
The March photo is depicted above.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the story is that the reporter managed to completely avoid any magnet puns.
No "attractions" no "repulsions". Nothing.
That's truly amazing. Well done!
So there you were looking at the sun (through a dark lens of course) and wondering why it was so smooth. Lack of magnetism is the short answer.
Usually a shot of the sun like the one above will reveal the presence of sunspots.
Sunspots are great pools of magnetism that appear when magnetic force-fields generated by the sun's inner dynamo magnets poke through the surface. These fields block the flow of heat from below, cooling the sun in their vicinity which makes it look dark compared to the surrounding inferno.
Sunspots are in a state of non-stop upheaval. Tangled lines of magnetism twist and stretch until the tension becomes too great and a solar flare explodes. This link between flares and spots is why solar minimum is so quiet.
Sunspots come and go in an 11-year rhythm called the sunspot cycle. At the cycle's peak, solar maximum, the sun is continually peppered with spots, some as big as the planet Jupiter.
But during solar minimum months can go by without a single sunspot.
We're now at the beginning of the minimum. February 2006 was the first month in almost ten years with mostly no sunspots. For 21 of February's 28 days, the sun was blank. This situation is expected to continue for the rest of 2006.
Are you a magnet or magnetism fan looking for a good reason to visit Minneapolis Minnesota USA?
Well look no further than The Bakken, A Library and Museum of Electricity in Life.
That's right, an entire museum devoted to education and learning that furthers the understanding of the history, cultural context, and applications of electricity and magnetism in the life sciences and their benefits to contemporary society.
Located in a Tudor mansion, it's home to 11,000 rare books and 2,500 scientific instruments relating to electricity and magnetism. It was founded in 1975 by Earl E. Bakken, inventor of the first transistorized cardiac pacemaker.
Spiffy!
With a cool name like "displaced vortex states" who really cares what it does.
Anyway, according to this Science Daily story a displaced vortex state is microscopic magnetic state that could lead to superior computer data storage.
It also leads to images like the one below, which is not (though you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise) a close up shot of a fly swatter.
Check out the website for the original press release here.
Whatever will those goofy magnet scientists think of next?
With functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) you can actually peer into the skulls of people and see how their brains are responding to various stimuli.
So how might brains respond to what is some of the most expensive stimuli in the world -- the commercials broadcast during the Superbowl halftime show.
To find out which commercials were the most and least effective, FKF Applied Research and the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center hooked a bunch of people up fMRI machines then showed them the ads.
You can find the results here.
And if you want another perspective on this experiment and a look at some of the cool images you can get from an fMRI site, then check out this site.
Now here's a garment that should be quite a challenge to iron.
The PodShirt features some kind of (yes, you guessed it) magnetic clip system that is guaranteed to position your iPod shuffle just... so:
It'll cost you around 30 bucks plus postage and packing
The manufacturer claims that magnetism won't damage the iPod shuffle. But don't even think of trying this with a hard drive MP3 player as it'll probably suffer serious wipage.
iShirt therefore i am?
O magnetism is there no end to your delights?
Introducing throwies.
Throwies are a nifty combination of a rare-earth magnet, an LED, a lithium battery, all taped together to create a cheap and cheerful miniature art statement.
Or something like that.
Probably be most useful around Christmas time.
It's a semiconductor.
But it has no wires. It promises more processor power than today's transistor-based devices. Yet it uses less electricity and emits less heat.
What's the secret of this radical new chip design?
Magnetism of course.