Cool Science

So in the dark ages, magnets were gauges of marital fidelity and were sources of a lot of other silliness. How has perception changed today? Of course, mostly for the better. Take Magnetix (c) which I wish they had invented back when I was a kid. I play with this one all the time at the office. Then there is the explosion of rare earth magnets, frequently based on some combination of neodymium and one of my favorite elements boron. Standard fare for these little guys can reach about 1 Tesla according to a fun rave at DansData and that's about 20,000 times the strength of earth's magnetic field as we experience it at the surface of the earth. Dan's toolbelt idea is surely a winner.

I'm crushed to discover that the correct spelling is Neodymium. I had always learned it as Neodynium, and in fact several authoritative sources think so. I'm holding out.

But don't worry, there is still room for excitement and I'd have to say that quackery has a new champion in alex chui. I'm going to say that he is the mental equivalent of Derek Zoolander who eloquently wondered, "'I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is." Well Alex found out - magnets - yes, magnets and ridiculous good lucks are the key to immortality. And magnetotherapy is too painful a subject to even link to.

But if you're feeling REALLY brave, you might try the super magnets (scroll about half-way down). Consider the manufacturers warnings, such as "These are absolutely not toys." and "you must think ahead when moving these" and they can break fingers, hands, arms etc....

Overall, the perception of magnets is doing well. In fact the U.S. government believes that magnet technology is vital to the national interests of the country and maintains a national laboratory in magnet technology and research. Founded originally at the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory at MIT, the National High Field Magnet Lab now resides in Florida.