Pat gets a very attractive no-prize for bringing us news of the most powerful magnet yet created:

This definitely ain't no refrigerator magnet. The new super magnet at The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory weighs more than 15 tons and has a magnetic field 420,000 times that of the Earth's — strong enough to pull a metal object out of a person's hand and send it flying — if people were allowed to get close enough.

The laboratory — one of only nine high magnetic field labs in the world — unveiled the new magnet, 13 years in development, on Thursday.

Apparently the biggest innovation isn't its strength, but the size of its field. The device seems (from the article) primarily targetted at various forms of magnetic imaging.