World-record magnet tested in Florida

World-record magnet tested in Florida: "Science News
World-record magnet tested in Florida
By UPI
Dec 15, 2005, 19:00 GMT

TALLAHASSEE, FL, United States (UPI) -- The Tallahassee, Fla.-based National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is ending the year by completing development and testing of a world-record magnet.

The achievement -- said to be of international importance -- involves a 35-tesla magnet, the highest-field 'resistive' magnet in the world. The state-of-the-art magnet, which incorporates 'Florida-Bitter' technology invented at the lab, was designed and built on-site and is available for research.

The 35-tesla magnet is an upgrade of an existing 30-tesla magnet and it surpasses the previous record of 33 tesla also held by the laboratory.

'Tesla' is a measurement of the strength of a magnetic field; 1 tesla is equal to 20,000 times the Earth`s magnetic field. Typical magnetic resonance imaging machines in hospitals provide fields in the range of 1 to 3 tesla.

The 35-tesla magnet will be primarily used for physics and materials science research, lab officials said.

The laboratory, funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida, is operated by a consortium consisting of Florida State University, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International"