Applications of magnetism -- magnetic recording and spintronics as an example

Fridge magnets and compasses. These are two of the most well-known applications of magnetism. Some people may also be familiar with magnetic stripe cards and cassette tapes. However, many other exciting applications of magnetism exist that are often overlooked in high-school physics classes. Today, I will consider the example of magnetic recording and spintronics to create more awareness about the fascinating applications of magnetism. This discussion aims to motivate educators and students to place more focus on this topic and, more generally, the field of materials physics.

Teaching and communicating magnetism

This is a reprint of an article that I have written for the IEEE Magnetics Society Newsletter (November 2022 issue, edited by Jia Yan Law). Please do check out the Newsletter if you are interested in contents related to magnetism, technology, activities of the Magnetics Society as well as announcements of conferences, awards and events.

Nowadays, the majority of people are likely to encounter magnetism in their everyday lives, be it by simply seeing the magnets on their refrigerator door, using magnetized screwdrivers, navigating with a compass, swiping a credit card, undergoing an MRI scan, or saving an image file on their computer's magnetic hard drive. Of course, in the IEEE Magnetics Society, we have a much closer and more professional relationship with the world of magnetism, for instance, by conducting fundamental research or driving the evolution of magnetism-based technologies. This places us in an optimal situation to teaching and communication outreach in the field of magnetism!

Thoughts and conversations on teaching during a scientific conference

Last week, I attended the annual conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) which took place in Minneapolis (United States). While the central topics of this conference were all related to cutting-edge research in the field of magnetism, I still had the chance to think and talk about teaching physics and materials science. Therefore, in today’s blogpost, I would like to touch on a few of my thoughts and conversations.