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The two mini-mega magnets \u2013 credit, CC 4.0. Int \u2013 Science Advances (2026). DOI 10.1126sciadv.adz5826<\/p>\n The two mini-mega magnets \u2013 credit, CC 4.0. Int \u2013 Science Advances (2026). DOI 10.1126sciadv.adz5826<\/p>\n
In an extraordinary breakthrough for physics, scientists at ETH Zurich have condensed the power of a superconducting magnet as big as a small building down into a device that fits in the palm of one\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
This Tony Stark-like achievement promises unimagined possibilities in the fields of nuclear fusion and nuclear magnetic resonance.<\/p>\n
Of particular utility would be turning some of the entire installations needed to perform the latter into something which could be situated onto a tabletop.<\/p>\n
ETH Zurich is one of the top engineering schools in the world, and researchers from its Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences successfully made two kinds of magnets using special superconducting tape, neither of which exceeded 2.5 inches in diameter.<\/p>\n
With them, they generated magnetic fields at an incredible 38, and 42 tesla of strength. For comparison, the world-record holding hybrid restive magnet<\/a> at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida generates a field of 45 tesla.<\/p>\n To do so, however, it required the following merely to built it: $15 million, 35 tons of materials arranged 22 feet high, and enough copper wiring to install the electrical cables in 80 family-size homes.<\/p>\n Running it, meanwhile, requires the following: 33 megawatts of power, 4,000 gallons of water every minute, and 2,800 liters of liquid helium to cool it down to -456\u00b0 Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n To be fair to its engineers, it was built in 1999, and subsequent efforts have come close to 40-tesla<\/a> magnetic fields with much smaller devices.<\/p>\n MORE ENGINEERING MARVELS: <\/strong>University in China Begins Installing World\u2019s Strongest Gravity Centrifuge to Compress Space and Time<\/a><\/p>\n To build their game-changing prototypes, the scientists at ETH Zurich wound flat REBCO tape (rare earth barium copper oxide) into disk-shaped coils called pancakes and then stacked them together. Doing so concentrated the magnetic field into a small volume while using a much shorter length of tape than traditional designs.<\/p>\n The small size of the pancakes are, counterintuitively, key to the success of the design. Without joints, breaks in the tape, or insulation between the coils, there was no loss of conductivity, which also meant there was no need to overcome that loss through additional power and cooling.<\/p>\n