In an extraordinary breakthrough for physics, scientists at ETH Zurich have condensed the power of a superconducting magnet as big as a small building down into a device that fits in the palm of one's hand.

This Tony Stark-like achievement promises unimagined possibilities in the fields of nuclear fusion and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Of particular utility would be turning some of the entire installations needed to perform the latter into something which could be situated onto a tabletop.

ETH Zurich is one of the top engineering schools in the world, and researchers from its Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences successfully made two kinds of magnets using special superconducting tape, neither of which exceeded 2.5 inches in diameter.