Creating a magnetic field using electricity is easy: an electric current flowing in a wire generates a magnetic field around that wire.

ECONOMIST: Recreating the planet's magnetic field in a laboratory

Note that an American, Oberlin Smith, described how magnetic recording could be done on magnetic impregnated thread or steel wire in 1888.

FORBES: Magnetic Tape Turns 60

These impurities help tame the magnetic fields caused by current inside the wire, increasing its capacity.

ECONOMIST: Inside story

Physicists thought that ballistic anisotropic magnetoresistance would show itself when a magnetised metal wire a few atoms across was placed in a second magnetic field.

ECONOMIST: Spintronics

He starts with magnetic resonance imaging and computerized tomography scans to create a "finite element model, " a wire-frame mesh to be filled with information.

FORBES: Magazine Article