Amherst Researchers Create Magnetic Monopoles

An anonymous reader writes "Nearly 85 years after pioneering theoretical physicist Paul Dirac predicted the possibility of their existence, an international collaboration led by Amherst College Physics Professor David S. Hall '91 and Aalto University (Finland) Academy Research Fellow Mikko Möttönen has created, identified and photographed synthetic magnetic monopoles in Hall's laboratory on the Amherst campus. The groundbreaking accomplishment paves the way for the detection of the particles in nature, which would be a revolutionary development comparable to the discovery of the electron." That's quite a step beyond detecting monopoles; the Nature abstract is online, but the full paper is paywalled.

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Monopole Magnets

[Anonymous Coward]

"The secrets of magnetism"

Requires Superstring Theory, Silksteel Alloys

Leads to Nanominiaturization, Unified Field Theory
Enables: Terraform Mag Tube

Are we sure. . .

[smooth wombat]

someone wasn't playing a trick on them and was turning the electric can opener on and off in the other room?

Re:Verry cool IF TRUE

[tomhath]

FTFA:

Hall's team adopted an innovative approach to investigating Dirac's theory, creating and identifying synthetic magnetic monopoles in an artificial magnetic field generated by a Bose-Einstein condensate, an extremely cold atomic gas tens of billionths of a degree warmer than absolute zero.

"Verry cool" is an understatement.

Monopole Money

[retroworks]

You could run an electric utility, four railroads, and get out of jail free if this can be produced to scale.

Next: aguuti nodules

[Culture20]

Magnetic monopoles, how do they work? My guess is the other pole is directed through higher spacial dimensions.

Re:Contradicts current theory?

[Kongming]

Also, would this allow for the development of an over unity, energy from nothing generation machine.

The answer to that question is always, always no. Except when it's still no, in which case it is no. No.

In conclusion, no.

Glad they're back in stock...

[PseudoCoder]

My previous supplier has left me high and dry and I can't finish my perpetual motion machine without one of these. Can I get a discount on more than one? Or do I have to buy them one by one to avoid them neutralizing each other?

Re:Contradicts current theory?

[meta-monkey]

So you're saying there's a chance...?

Re:Monopole Magnets

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

And yet our tanks can still be beaten by archers.

Re:Are we sure. . .

[wonkey_monkey]

Hold the phone

I can't. I has no thumbs.

Re:Monopole Magnets

[Anonymous Coward]

No one knew electricity was going to lead to iPhones.

Probably just as well. If they had, we might never have had all the good things that electricity has brought us.