The National MagLab is funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida.
These demonstrations about laws and tools associated with electricity and magnetism allow you to adjust variables at and to visualize invisible forces — which makes them almost better than the real thing.
Seeing is believing. In these animations, we show you what electricity and magnetism might look like if they weren't invisible.
Learn about electricity and magnetism — and have some fun while you're at it!
How do Maglev trains work? What are comets made of? How do bugs walk on water? This section demonstrates these and other concepts related to magnetism, electricity and other areas of science.
Whether you prefer your science short & sweet or long & detailed, we spell it out for you here in easy-to-understand language.
Read fun science stories told in comic strip style.
There is beauty and art in science. Gaze on these stories of discoveries that could be featured on museum walls instead of scientific journals.
Explore these surprising, unconventional and sometimes downright strange stories about high magnetic field research.
These special science graphics explain science stories in digestible steps and include optional detours for readers wanting more background to customize your reading journey.
Get to know these pioneers who went down in history for their groundbreaking work, including scientists behind common terms such as Amp, Celsius, Kelvin, hertz and tesla.
From the world's first compass to the magnetic force microscope and beyond, explore a variety of instruments, tools and machines throughout history.
Our timeline takes you through the highlights of electricity and magnetism and across the centuries.
Take a field trip to these high magnetic field landmarks around the globe.
Defense-related research leads to the computer, the world enters the atomic age and TV conquers America.
1940
An early version of the magnetron oscillator, the first device capable of producing very high power at microwave frequencies, is built, allowing great advances in radar technology.
1944
Mathematical chemist Lars Onsager provides a solution to the two-dimensional Ising model that accurately predicts the behavior of a magnet.
1945
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC), the world's first electronic computer, is completed, three years after building was begun.
1946
American physicists Edward Purcell and Felix Bloch independently discover nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the selective absorption of electromagnetic radiation by the nuclei of certain atoms exposed to a strong, static magnetic field.
1947
A team of physicists employed at the Bell Telephone Laboratories invent the transistor, an electronic device composed of a semiconductor and at least three electrodes that is chiefly used for amplification or switching. The transistor subsequently begins to replace vacuum tubes in electronics.
American physicists Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger independently formulate a theory of quantum electrodynamics that merges quantum mechanics with Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity. At approximately the same time, the equivalent theory of Japanese physicist Tomonaga Shin'ichiro, which was published several years earlier in Japan, gains international attention.
1948
"The Bing Crosby Show" becomes the first radio program broadcast from magnetic tape.
1949
Magnetic core memory is introduced and enables a team of scientists and engineers at MIT to construct Whirlwind (completed in 1951), the world’s first computer to operate in real time.
1951
The first observation of magnetic domains by the Kerr effect is reported.
1952
The Phillips Company announces the development of barium- and strontium-based ceramic magnets.
1953
Jack Kilby, an electrical engineer working at Texas Instruments, and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor independently invent the integrated circuit, a device consisting of multiple electronic components and their interconnections etched or imprinted on a thin substrate.
American physicist Donald Glaser builds the first working bubble chamber, a radiation detection device that enables the observation of the paths of subatomic particles.
1954
At Bell Laboratories Calvin Fuller, Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson invent the first solar battery, which converted about 6 percent of sunlight into electricity and was used to power a radio transmitter during its first public demonstration.
1956
For the first time on a large scale, radioactive materials are utilized as fuel to generate electricity when the first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, is established in England.
1957
American physicists John Bardeen, Leon Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer develop a successful, far-reaching theory explaining why some materials at extremely low temperatures conduct electricity without resistance, the BCS theory of superconductivity.
1958
The Shippingport Atomic Power Station opens in Pennsylvania, the first civilian nuclear power plant in the U.S.
