Scientists at Tallahassee’s MagLab recently succeeded in confirming a long-standing theory. In 1976, Douglas Hofstadter suggested, under specific circumstances, energy would be distributed in a fractal pattern resembling abutterfly.
But there’s been no way to test that until now.
One team was able to make inconclusive observations at their home lab, but Deputy Director Eric Palm said the MagLab’s facilities were necessary for scientists to confirm their observations.
“At 13 tesla you can only see a small part of the picture, at 35 or 45 tesla, you can see a much bigger part of the energy scale, and really verify that it repeats,” Palm said.
It’s unclear at this point if the experiment’s processes will have alternate applications. Officials said the MagLab’s role in this discovery, though, will help it continue to attract top scientists from around the world.