Fatal Attraction - a Discovery of the Earth Magnetic Field

The Educational and Outreach Group of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica & Vulcanologia (E&O Group, INGV Rome) has recently projected for the next ``Science Festival'' (Genova next October), a new exhibition devoted to the Earth Magnetic Field. This brand new display is linked to the exhibition prepared for the last year festival, and devoted to Earthquakes and Plate Tectonics, through a common exhibit that shows the inner structure of the Earth. The aim of this exhibition is to illustrate and to divulgate to the public of all level the features and the physical processes behind the magnetic field. It will be also emphasized the role played by the magnetic shield to allow life on Earth, and its historical key role in the human cultural progress since Greek civilities and in the navigation. The people visiting this stand will try some simple and intriguing hands-on experiments on magnetism and electromagnetism (what is a field, the generation of a magnetic field by means of electricity, the ``shape of the field'', the ``strength'' of the earth magnetic field.), and will then go on with the understanding of the mechanisms behind the field generation and its time variations. Further multimedia, interactive games and installations will be employed to illustrate the characteristics of the magnetic field going from the Core of the Earth to the Space, not forgetting some natural impressive shows as Auroras and Magnetic Storms. The new trends of research, as inversions, models, Space Weather, will be shown too, to give the easiest but most complete perspective on the Geomagnetic Field.