At some point during our primary school careers, most of us probably constructed a simple compass, often by floating a ...

Mathematicians have solved a decades-old problem related to spinning a needle, in what has been hailed as one of the most important mathematical results in recent times. Once seen as “impossible”, the ...

At some point during our primary school careers, most of us probably constructed a simple compass, often by floating a magnetized needle on a cork in a cup of water. The water in such a configuration ...

If shrunken down to micron size, a compass needle could wobble. (Courtesy: iStockphoto/tobias machhaus) A tiny magnetic needle just 10 μm long could be used to create a magnetic-field sensor that – if ...