'Leccy Magnetic

The BBC reports on how spin ice has been used to demonstrate magnetic currents, in a similar way to how electric currents exist. I always find experiments at a few degrees Kelvin a little hard to fathom, since the best they can do is demonstrate the existence of a property or behaviour. In this case decaying muons were used to show the direction of movement of the magnetic charge, not unlike iron filings. By placing a magnetic field on one side of the crystals, they were able to show that the magnetic particles were attracted in the same way that a electrons do in an electric field. Manipulating these magnetic currents could have computing applications, but once again, we are talking about very specific properties of very specific materials at a few degrees K. They'll need to find similar propoerties in more accessible materials if this is going to be applied to anything at all.