World'sfirstplasticmagnetpasses"test"

WORLD SCIENCE

On the home page

EXCLUSIVES

Bacteria may have primitive form of intelligence, researchers say
Scholar: Michelangelo faked dazzling archaeological find
Studies back tale that banished children founded tribe
New telescope could pick up alien TV signals
Is food becoming less nutritious?
The Universe may be revealing its shape
"Garbage crisis" may have afflicted world's first villages
Fossils inspired ancient flood myths?

MORE NEWS

Gay men's brains react differently to a male scent
Sunlight in a tube
Mystery objects stump astronomers
"Spray-on homes" invented
Space probe lands on mysterious Saturn moon

Subscribe to the free World Science email newsletter!

"Long before it's in the papers"
June 20, 2005

RETURN TO THE WORLD SCIENCE HOME PAGE

World's first plastic magnet passes "test"

Sept. 1, 2004
Special to World Science

The world's first plastic magnet to work at room temperature has passed the elementary test of magnetism, the New Scientist magazine reported. The magnet’s creators at the University of Durham, UK, have used it to pick up iron filings from a laboratory bench, according to the publication.

In 2001, chemists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln claimed to have created the world's first plastic magnet, but it only worked below the extremely low temperature of 10 degrees kelvin. Other researchers have made plastic magnets, but typically they only function at extremely low temperatures, the publication reported, or their magnetism at room temperature is too weak to be of commercial use.

So the Durham team can claim to have made the first plastic magnet that could be used in everyday products, acording to the magazine. One of the most likely applications is in the magnetic coating of computer hard discs, which could lead to a new generation of high-capacity discs.

Jerry Torrance, a materials scientist based in California who is a consultant to some of the world's largest electronics and engineering companies, including IBM, told the magazine the work is "a significant scientific breakthrough” but that practical applications are probably still a long way off.

—EJL