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AI discovers new rare-earth-free magnet at 200 times the speed of man

gnatman 2y ago
>> UK deep-tech company Materials Nexus announced on Tuesday that it has designed a new rare-earth-free permanent magnet with the help of its AI platform. It says the AI-driven discovery and development process was 200 times faster than the resource-intensive manual route, bringing new hope to an electrifying world with a growing appetite for powerful magnets. >> Source: Materials Nexus
popol12 2y ago
Not a single mention of what the magnets are made of nor how they compare to current state of the art. Looks a bit like "New battery will replace lithium" articles
pjc50 2y ago
This would be great if there were details, but it's just a press release. https://www.materialsnexus.com/news/magnex-rare-earth-free-permanent-magnet https://www.materialsnexus.com/news/magnex-rare-earth-free-p... Computer-enhanced chemical and biological compound theory space search has been an idea for a while, so is it "working" now? How?
withinboredom 2y ago
Does this title make sense to anyone? Or is it some jargon that I just don't know.
voidUpdate 2y ago
As far as I can tell, this ai was given a list of existing formulations for rare-earth free magnets, along with some statistics about them, the ai picked the "best", by some conditions the researchers picked and then the researchers tested that formulation to make sure it worked
beardyw 2y ago
I've got one - iron. At the speed of man.
RobLach 2y ago
I know that the status quo in science journalism is to desperately find ways to excite people about research but this headline boils down to “scientists use computer to help with research” and the actual story is “company discovers new magnet”.
- ssss11 2y ago
  Don’t forget the totally factual “200 times faster than man”!
mateo1 2y ago
What exactly is this "MagNex" product and why is it worth an (long and mostly irrelevant to the point) article?
trelane 2y ago
My head is spinning trying to understand the units in that headline.
adrian_b 2y ago
There is no explanation about what exactly has been discovered by the AI. The existence of the iron nitride magnets as a REE-free (rare-earth-element-free) alternative to the REE magnets has been perfectly known for many years, much more than a decade. So no new magnetic material has been discovered by the AI, unless it differs somehow in some small details from the known iron nitride magnets. Such magnets have been patented many years ago and startups have been created with the purpose of making and selling such magnets. Nevertheless, until now there have been no practical results, for reasons that are kept secret by those who attempt to develop such magnets, but it appears that the crystal structure with good magnetic properties is unstable, so either the yields for making such magnets are very poor or the magnets degrade in time very quickly.

>> UK deep-tech company Materials Nexus announced on Tuesday that it has designed a new rare-earth-free permanent magnet with the help of its AI platform. It says the AI-driven discovery and development process was 200 times faster than the resource-intensive manual route, bringing new hope to an electrifying world with a growing appetite for powerful magnets. >> Source: Materials Nexus

popol12 2y ago

Not a single mention of what the magnets are made of nor how they compare to current state of the art. Looks a bit like "New battery will replace lithium" articles

pjc50 2y ago

This would be great if there were details, but it's just a press release. https://www.materialsnexus.com/news/magnex-rare-earth-free-permanent-magnet https://www.materialsnexus.com/news/magnex-rare-earth-free-p... Computer-enhanced chemical and biological compound theory space search has been an idea for a while, so is it "working" now? How?

withinboredom 2y ago

Does this title make sense to anyone? Or is it some jargon that I just don't know.

voidUpdate 2y ago

As far as I can tell, this ai was given a list of existing formulations for rare-earth free magnets, along with some statistics about them, the ai picked the "best", by some conditions the researchers picked and then the researchers tested that formulation to make sure it worked

beardyw 2y ago

I've got one - iron. At the speed of man.

RobLach 2y ago

I know that the status quo in science journalism is to desperately find ways to excite people about research but this headline boils down to “scientists use computer to help with research” and the actual story is “company discovers new magnet”.

ssss11 2y ago
Don’t forget the totally factual “200 times faster than man”!

mateo1 2y ago

What exactly is this "MagNex" product and why is it worth an (long and mostly irrelevant to the point) article?

trelane 2y ago

My head is spinning trying to understand the units in that headline.

adrian_b 2y ago

There is no explanation about what exactly has been discovered by the AI. The existence of the iron nitride magnets as a REE-free (rare-earth-element-free) alternative to the REE magnets has been perfectly known for many years, much more than a decade. So no new magnetic material has been discovered by the AI, unless it differs somehow in some small details from the known iron nitride magnets. Such magnets have been patented many years ago and startups have been created with the purpose of making and selling such magnets. Nevertheless, until now there have been no practical results, for reasons that are kept secret by those who attempt to develop such magnets, but it appears that the crystal structure with good magnetic properties is unstable, so either the yields for making such magnets are very poor or the magnets degrade in time very quickly.