There was a time when magnets were the most terrifying things in computing. Magnets erased floppy disks and tape cassettes and even hard drives. But in the modern era, magnets are our friends. Apple ...

LAURA LEWIS sighs. “We’ve always had a hard time with magnets,” she says. “People think, ‘yeah yeah, they’re on the refrigerator, big deal’.” Lewis, who develops new magnetic materials at Northeastern ...