Magnet man? - Physical News - Brief Article

What do you call a man with 36 kg (80 lbs) of metal plates, silverware, and knickknacks stuck to his body--without glue! People in his native Malaysia call him Mr. Magnet, mostly because his "attractive" body appears to exert a magnet-like pulling force on metal.

But last October, scientists at Malaysia's University of Technology found that a different force keeps metal stuck to Liew Thow Lin's flesh: friction, a "sticky" force that resists motion and keeps objects from sliding.

Scientists first scanned the 70-year-old's body for a magnetic field, an area in which a magnet exerts its force. They found none. What they did find: super-high friction levels on his skin, a trait that appears to be genetic, or inherited. "His three sons and two grandchildren also have magnetic-like flesh," researcher Mohamed Amin Alias says.

Alias is now studying the family's skin to learn why it's so sticky.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Scholastic, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group