A Longstanding Attraction The History and Modern Uses of Magnetism

This book describes how the phenomenon of magnetic attraction has been a topic of interest for more than a thousand years, and how our modern understanding of magnetism and its connection with electrical effects, has led to all sorts of applications. From the industrial revolution to the modern data age and medicine, magnetism has enabled all manner of technologies which have shaped our lives in uncountable ways. Moreover, the study of magnetism made a decisive contribution to advances in the understanding of the structure of matter in the first decades of the 20th century. Assuming no background in science, this book captures the magic of the magnet and explains how magnetism has had an inexorable influence on the course of humanity.

Chapter 1. Introduction: The Magic of the Magnet.- Chapter 2. The Stone with a Soul: Stones that Attract.- Chapter 3. The Finger of God: Two Treaties on Magnetism.- Chapter 4. A Very Feeble Effect: Magnets and Electricity.- Chapter 5. “Acting Where It Is Not”: Magnetism and Action at a Distance.- Chapter 6. The Secrets of Matter: Like Flies in a Cathedral.- Chapter 7. Magnets Large and Small.- Chapter 8. Magnetism in Medicine: Magnets That Cure.- Chapter 9. Magnets that Remember: A Pile Higher than the Earth-Moon Distance.

Alberto P. Guimarães is an Emeritus Researcher at the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF) in Rio de Janeiro and is a specialist in magnetism. He obtained his Ph. D. at the University of Manchester, England. He is the author of the books Principles of Nanomagnetism, Springer, 2nd edition (2017), From Lodestone to Supermagnets: Understanding Magnetic Phenomena, Wiley-VCH (2005), and Magnetism and Magnetic Resonance in Solids, John Wiley (1998).