The magnetic field lines are like the two lanes of traffic on a busy road: close together, but pointing in opposite directions.

ECONOMIST: Hot stuff

The same thing happens with the magnetic field lines, which suddenly reconnect, resulting in a hole a few kilometres wide in the armour of the magnetosphere, through which plasma can spill.

ECONOMIST: Hot stuff

There seems to be no way that particles streaming past the earth along magnetic field lines can make a turn, move at right angles to those lines for a bit and end up inside the magnetosphere.

ECONOMIST: Hot stuff

More specifically, researchers have been interested in the link, if any, between the extremely low frequency magnetic fields generated by these lines and childhood leukaemia.

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Grefe uses dreampop ambience and simple acoustic guitar lines to create magnetic pop hooks that sometimes feel like the crackling of an open-air fire on a cool evening.

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And when wires are close together, the magnetic fields invade the territory of the adjacent wires and send noise back and forth across the lines.

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