Physicists probe magnetic effect in metals

Two physicists at Western Reserve University have reported the discovery of a new magnetic effect in metals, predicted by one of them only six weeks earlier. The new effect is the periodic variation in the length of a metal crystal at very low temperatures, as an applied magnetic field is gradually changed. Dr. B. S. Chandrasekhar, professor of physics, predicted on purely theoretical grounds the possibility of observing the effect, in a note published in the August 15 issue of Physics Letters. The experiment was performed by Dr. Ben A. Green, Jr., assistant professor of physics and Dr. Chandrasekhar several weeks later in the John Schoff Millis Science Center at Western Reserve University, and the first observation of the effect was reported by them in the October 1 issue of Physical Review Letters, a journal published by The American Physical Society.