Magnetism is one of nature's fundamental forces, but in many respects scientists know little about it. Last week Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced an attack on the elusive mysteries. With $6,000,000 from the U.S. Air Force, M.I.T. will build an ambitious laboratory devoted solely to the study of magnetism. Main feature: the world's most powerful electromagnet—a giant coil that will maintain a continuous magnetic field of 250,000 gauss, some 500,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field.
Scientists expect M.I.T.'s great instrument to yield important discoveries in dozens of different fields. A considerable part of the laboratory's work will be in solid-state...