Spotted this on Slashdot. Scientists from a laboratory in a University in the UK have come up with a new compound that could prove valuable for computers in a while. This is not an entirely new creation since it has been done before, but has never been this feeble for commercial use.
This plastic magnet is claimed to work normally even at room temperatures, which is it's main attraction. Although the scientists say the material is still not yet 100% effecient, they have high hopes of achieving that through the near future.
Jerry Torrance, a materials scientist based in California who is a consultant to some of the world's largest electronics and engineering companies, including IBM, describes the work as "a significant scientific breakthrough". However, he says that practical applications are probably still a long way off.
One of the most likely applications is in the magnetic coating of computer hard discs, which could lead to a new generation of high-capacity discs. The team also thinks that plastic magnets could have important medical applications, for example in dentistry or the transducers used in cochlear implants. Organic magnetic materials are less likely to be rejected by the body.
News source: New Scientist
