Like aspirin, magnets can thin the blood — potentially helping those at risk of a heart attack. But it takes more than a dubious mail order bracelet. Physicists at Temple University in Philadelphia exposed a sample of flowing blood to a thousand-pound magnet about as strong as that inside an MRI machine. The iron-laden red blood cells lined up in the magnetic field, lowering the blood’s viscosity by 20 to 30 percent. This effect, which has not been tested on living creatures yet, lasted for several hours and could be repeated, as reported in an upcoming paper in Physical Review E. —Devin Powell
Posted by Jay Roberts at 03:08 AM | Permalink
