In ferromagnetic materials, smaller groups of atoms band together into areas called domains, in which all the electrons have the same magnetic orientation. That's why you can magnetize them. See how it works in this Java tutorial.

Although he is best known as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Carl Friedrich Gauss was also a pioneer in the study of magnetism and electricity. To facilitate an extensive survey of terrestrial magnetism, he invented an...

A handful of iron filings helps visualize the invisible magnetic field that circulates around a wire with a current running through it. (Java tutorial)

Whenever current travels through a conductor, a magnetic field is generated. (Java tutorial)

Most of us have seen the rainbow-hued breakdown of the composition of light. Light is of course a form of energy. A magnetic field changes the behavior of light- a phenomenon known as the Zeeman effect.

Find out more about German physicist Wilhelm Weber, who developed and enhanced a variety of devices for sensitively detecting and measuring magnetic fields and electrical currents.

Experiment with the compass in this tutorial to see how it responds to magnetic fields.

Think iron, nickel and other "ferromagnetic" substances are the only ones with magnetic properties? In fact, everything reacts to magnetic fields in some way.

When a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the flow of current, the field causes resistance in the current. This is the Lorentz force at work, and can be observed well in the Hall effect. (Java tutorial)

Learn about the Lorentz force with the help of this tutorial, in which a wire fashioned into a pendulum moves inside a magnetic field. (Java tutorial)

The Barkhausen effect makes the concept of magnetic domains audible (if not exactly music to the ear).

William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the nineteenth century and is best known today for inventing the international system of absolute temperature that bears his name. He made contributions to...

Recreate the discovery by Hans Christian Oersted about the relationship between electricity and magnetism in this very simple experiment.

This gallery takes readers from the 1880s and the pioneering work of German physicist August Kundt, up to recent advances in technology, including interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) and giant magnetoresistance (GMR).

A look at superlattices (alternating layers of thin films deposited in an orderly manner), methods for forming them, and their applications.

An explanation of this unique ceramic, including why it is of such great interest to scientists. Researchers use lanthanum aluminate to grow thin films of superconducting materials (including buckyballs) and hope it can one day be used...

A faraday cage is an important tool for some scientists at the MagLab. But they don't work with it: they work inside it.

Dilution fridges owe their cooling power to the incredible element helium. This animation illustrates how dil fridges exploit the element's properties to make things very, very cold.

In the APPI technique, UV light photons are used to ionize sample molecules.

The MagLab's bus tunnel has an aluminum track, but it doesn't carry passengers: it carries electricity, up to 56 megawatts of it.

With his famous kite experiment and other forays into science, Benjamin Franklin advances knowledge of electricity, inspiring his English friend Joseph Priestley to do the same.

Organic superconductors, though still new to science, are lighter and more potentially versatile than inorganic superconductors and may have important applications in the future.

This interactive lab in electromagnetics effectively illustrates how Faraday's law works.

In this fun lab activity, students will learn about the attraction and repulsion of magnets. Students will discover that like poles repel while unlike poles attract.