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.
Watch how changing the atmospheric pressure around objects can change their size.
The magnets here at the lab generate massive amounts of heat. To cool them off, we need massive amounts of water. But first, we have to take the ions …
Mass spectrum reveals how many isotopes of a given element are to be found in a material.
The simple electrical cell explained here is the most basic type of "wet" cell and demonstrates the fundamental chemistry behind batteries.
English chemist John Frederick Daniell came up with a twist on the simple voltaic cell.
It's hard enough to weigh something as itty bitty as atoms or molecules. Factor in that they're careening by faster than Jeff Gordon on steroids, and …
It may look like a simple black blob, but an oil drop is in fact a phenomenally complex mix of immense (relatively speaking) molecules called hydrocar…
Follow us down this yellow brick road to learn how these deceptively small molecules conceal enormous potential for applications from carbon capture t…
Using the world's most accurate molecular scale, a former astronaut wanna-be is studying Titan's hazy atmosphere, which resembles the ancient chemistr…
Although he was not the first person to observe a connection between electricity and magnetism, André-Marie Ampère was the first scientist to attempt …
Svante Arrhenius was born in Vik, Sweden, and became the first native of that country to win the Nobel Prize.
J. Georg Bednorz jointly revolutionized superconductivity research with K. Alex Müller by discovering an entirely new class of superconductors, often …
A native of Germany, the physicist Gerd Binnig co-developed the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with Heinrich Rohrer while the pair worked togethe…
Physicist Felix Bloch developed a non-destructive technique for precisely observing and measuring the magnetic properties of nuclear particles.
Leon Cooper shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and Robert Schrieffer, with whom he developed the first widely accepted theory of…
Born in Palo Alto, California, and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts – homes to Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively …
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb invented a device, dubbed the torsion balance, that allowed him to measure very small charges and experimentally estimate …
English scientist William Crookes was very innovative in his investigations with vacuum tubes and designed a variety of different types to be used in …
Humphry Davy was a pioneer in the field of electrochemistry who used electrolysis to isolate many elements from the compounds in which they occur natu…
Peter Debye carried out pioneering studies of molecular dipole moments, formulated theories of magnetic cooling and of electrolytic dissociation, and …
A self-educated man with a brilliant mind, Michael Faraday was born in a hardscrabble neighborhood in London.
Enrico Fermi was a titan of twentieth-century physics.
Murray Gell-Mann is a theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1969 for his contributions to elementary particle physics.
James Prescott Joule experimented with engines, electricity and heat throughout his life.
While growing up in the Soviet Union, Lev Landau was so far ahead of his classmates that he was ready to begin college at age 13.
Chemist Paul Lauterbur pioneered the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for medical imaging.
Robert Andrews Millikan was a prominent American physicist who made lasting contributions to both pure science and science education.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was a Dutch physicist who first observed the phenomenon of superconductivity while carrying out pioneering work in the field of…
A discovery by Hans Christian Ørsted forever changed the way scientists think about electricity and magnetism.
In a career that lasted seven decades, Max Planck achieved an enduring legacy with groundbreaking discoveries involving the relationship between heat …
Edward Mills Purcell was an American physicist who received half of the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for his development of a new method of ascertaini…
Isidor Isaac Rabi won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944 for his development of a technique for measuring the magnetic characteristics of atomic nucle…
Swiss physicist Heinrich Rohrer co-invented the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a non-optical instrument that allows the observation of individua…
Joseph John Thomson, better known as J. J. Thomson, was a British physicist who first theorized and offered experimental evidence that the atom was a …
William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the nineteenth century and is best known today for inventing the inte…
Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist whose skepticism of Luigi Galvani's theory of animal electricity led him to propose that an electrical curre…
Researching magnetism with the great mathematician and astronomer Karl Friedrich Gauss in the 1830s, German physicist Wilhelm Weber developed and enha…
Carl Edwin Wieman is one of three physicists credited with the discovery of a fifth phase of matter, for which he was awarded a share of the prestigio…
With only minor changes to its original 1866 design, the Leclanché cell evolved into modern alkaline batteries and the most popular household battery …
Scientists take important steps toward a fuller understanding of electricity, as well as some fruitful missteps, including an elaborate but incorrect …
Alessandro Volta invents the first primitive battery, discovering that electricity can be generated through chemical processes; scientists quickly sei…
Hans Christian Ørsted’s accidental discovery that an electrical current moves a compass needle rocks the scientific world; a spate of experiments foll…
The Industrial Revolution is in full force, Gramme invents his dynamo and James Clerk Maxwell formulates his series of equations on electrodynamics.
The telephone and first practical incandescent light bulb are invented while the word "electron" enters the scientific lexicon.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison duke it out over the best way to transmit electricity and Heinrich Hertz is the first person (unbeknownst to him) to br…
Scientists discover and probe x-rays and radioactivity, while inventors compete to build the first radio.
Albert Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity and his theory on the quantum nature of light, which he identified as both a particle and a…
Scientists' understanding of the structure of the atom and of its component particles grows, the phone and radio become common, and the modern televis…
Defense-related research leads to the computer, the world enters the atomic age and TV conquers America.
Computers evolve into PCs, researchers discover one new subatomic particle after another and the space age gives our psyches and science a new context…
Pack a sack lunch and load up! We're hitting the road to learn how this massive magnet tracks sodium moving through your brain.
This iron-packed substance has a dual personality; one second it's a liquid, the next it's a solid. Mix up a batch at home and see how this unique stu…
Iron is found in magnet, steel beams – and in our food! It tastes better in cashews than in bar magnets!
Watch crystals grow in this time lapse footage and learn how to grow your own crystals at home.
It’s slime time! Use the recipes below to make your own ooey gooey slime and explore its shapeshifting states of matter.
This high-field EPR study of the H-Mn2+ content in the bacterium Deinococcus Radiodurans provides the strongest known biological indicator of cellular…
An exciting advance of interest to future molecular-scale information storage. By using the uniquely high frequency Electron Magnetic Resonance techni…
New instrumentation allows electron magnetic resonance experiments to be performed in the lab’s flagship 36 T Series-Connected Hybrid magnet, unlockin…
This study reports the first example of a europium single-molecule magnet – a molecule that can retain alignment of its ‘North’ and ‘South’ poles at l…
Previous work at the MagLab demonstrated that it is possible to design molecules containing a LuII ion such that its lone unpaired electron is shielde…
Molecular fossils of chlorophyll (called porphyrins) more than 1.1 billion years old find suggest that photosynthesis began 600 million years earlier …
Researchers have discovered a new method to create encapsulated carbon nanomaterials that contain fluorine. Known as fullerenes, these nanocages are p…
Precise determination of hemoglobin sequence and subunit quantitation from human blood for diagnosis of hemoglobin-based diseases.
A new method to characterize crude oil corrosion shows that corrosion in acidic crude oils depends on the specific structures of the acid molecules, i…
New technique could lead to precise, personalized cancer diagnosis and monitoring.
Researchers used the MagLab to produce the first clarified map of KRAS proteins in colon cancer tumors. Twenty-eight additional forms of the KRAS prot…
The 21 T FT-ICR mass spectrometer identified four times the number of species in natural organic matter than lower magnetic field systems, providing a…
Identification of toxic compounds in drinking water formed through disinfection reveals more than 3500 toxic, chlorinated species that can only be obs…
The 21T FT-ICR MS instrument enables the molecular characterization of atmospheric hazes - like that on Saturn’s moon, Titan - and water vapor to bett…
MagLab researchers use 21 tesla ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) mass spectrometry to identify the best way to produce carbon fibers from petroleum waste…
Wildfires change the chemical composition of molecules in soil, and only the 21T FT-ICR mass spectrometer can assess the molecular composition to unde…
Deuterated water (2H2O) is often used to examine metabolic pathways in humans and animals. However, it can cause toxicity and distort metabolic readin…
Scientists can create synthetic imitations of natural polymers, such as DNA, which provide an understanding of how nature works and can confer unique …
This finding demonstrates a path forward to dramatically enhance sensitivity for molecule concentration measurement by magnetic resonance using Overha…
Chemists are rarely able to use oxygen NMR to determine molecular structures, since 17O is an extremely challenging nucleus to observe. This work prov…
Combining high magnetic fields, specialized probes, and measurement techniques, this work adds the crucial 17O nucleus into the study of biomolecules …
A protein modification rarely found in terrestrial animals was discovered in the slime of the velvet worm. This slime, which is projected for prey cap…
Rhodium (Rh) is one of the most costly and scarce platinum group elements; however, it is of great importance in many technologies including catalytic…
Solid oxide fuel cells generate clean energy by oxidizing green fuels like hydrogen and reducing atmospheric oxygen, without recharging or emissions t…
Reuse of the MagLab's Ion Cyclotron Resonance facility data improved understanding of protein fragmentation and aided the design and release of new al…
Combining new data with an existing MagLab dataset, researchers characterized the millions of unique chemicals found in our waterways, including both …
Combining tremendous strength with a high-quality field, the MagLab’s newest instrument promises big advances in interdisciplinary research.
State-of-the-art ion cyclotron resonance magnet system offers researchers significantly more power and accuracy than ever before.
A unique way to bond together single-layer semiconductors opens a door to new nanotechnologies.
Finding could make pricey, massive scanners a thing of the past.
Martha Chacón-Patiño to jump-start collaboration that could advance both the treatment of cancer and the study of petroleum.
Using tools at the MagLab, scientists pinpoint pigments that are the oldest on record.
Lab veteran Tim Cross has been named 2019-2020 Lawton Distinguished Professor by his peers.
Physicist Christianne Beekman and chemist Yan-Yan Hu have been recognized as outstanding early-career researchers by the National Science Foundation.
Enabled by a world-record instrument, the images convey vast amounts of data that could be useful in health and pharmaceutical research.
As head of nuclear magnetic resonance at the MagLab's Tallahassee headquarters, Rob Schurko hopes to expand capabilities and build new magnets.
MagLab researchers show that exposure to sun and water causes thousands of chemicals to leach from roads into the environment.
New funding will explore the mysteries of the Platinum group elements to investigate possible alternatives to rare and expensive materials used in an …
The MagLab and the Bruker Corporation have installed the world’s first 21 tesla magnet for Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT-ICR) mass spe…
MagLab analysis finds the space rock is among the most complex materials.
Improving technology for research of biomolecules and advancing our understanding of health and disease.
MagLab analysis provides new insight about the molecular composition of velvet worm slime, which has long fascinated scientists because of its remarka…
MagLab NMR Facility Director Rob Schurko was awarded the Vold Prize for his contributions to the field of solid-state NMR over the past 25 years.
"We're opening up the world at a molecular level to understand how these fires are going to impact us."
Researchers are working to characterize the virus’ envelope protein, or E protein, believed to be key to virus activity.
The first mass spectrum from Fourier-Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance happened in December 1973. The co-inventor went on to build MagLab’s world-reno…
Fuel made from corn harvest waste would reduce greenhouse emissions by 70%.
An FSU chemistry team advances work to find batteries that charge faster and last longer.
A MagLab biomedical engineering research group blazes a trail for women in science.
Researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory are working to learn more about predatory bacteria called BALOs and what role they could pl…
After years advising the lab as a member of our User and External Advisory Committees, Kristina (Kicki) Håkansson will now lead the MagLab’s ICR facil…
MagLab research works to find and catalog PFAS forever chemicals in our environment.
Research shows the fungus shuffles and rebuilds its cell wall to defend against antifungal drugs.
New tool will enable biological research and bioengineering at a super-small scale, opening the door to improved testing of pharmaceuticals and creati…
MagLab researchers are working to investigate platinum group metals using the world’s most powerful Nuclear Magnetic Resonance systems.
Thin, flexible, strong: MagLab research on the marvel of insect wings
Thanks to the MagLab’s expertise and unique instruments, a geochemist finds a treasure trove of oil-spill data buried beneath the sea.
Studying dissolved organic matter helps us better understand our diverse and changing planet.
Members of a sprawling science team piece together the puzzle of biochar, a promising tool in the fight against global warming.
A deeper understanding of petroleum molecules is shedding a harsh light on how some of them behave in our environment.
Some manmade chemicals feature bonds so strong they could last forever. And that's a life-threatening problem.
A team of researchers pulls off a daring data caper in Delaware Bay, swiping secrets about the movement of molecules between air and water.
New research is a first step toward understanding how a certain protein may help tuberculosis bacteria survive.
MagLab researchers and doctors at the University of Florida are testing a new MRI technique that can deliver images of the lungs like never before
Used to perform complex chemical analysis, this magnet offers researchers the world's highest field for ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.
A young chemist studying fracking fluid talks about what it's like when science hits close to home.
Paleobiogeochemist (no, that's not a typo) Nur Gueneli put some ancient dirt into our magnets to learn more about the Earth's earliest inhabitants.
ICR technology helps identify new kinds of hemoglobin abnormalities.
Chemist Amy McKenna describes her path to science and to the MagLab
With determination, confidence and a top-notch team, this MagLab chemist exposed the complex secrets of crude oil, busting open a vast, new field.
