Some inventions are so simple that it’s hard to improve them. The magnetic compass is a great example — a magnetized needle, a bit of cork, and a bowl of water are all you need to start navigating the ...

Atomic physicists “are jacks of all trades,” according to Alex Sushkov. “You have to have the idea, design the experiment, build the experiment, run the experiment, fix everything, take data, analyze ...

Many members of the animal kingdom can detect the subtle undulations of Earth’s magnetic field. Relying on a hidden ...

A protein in the retina of a migratory bird can respond to weak magnetic fields, researchers have found (Nature 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03618-9). The discovery suggests that the protein, ...