This is a narrative of the basic theoretical ideas of axisymmetric two-dimensional solitons and of their connection to basic experiments on magnetic compounds. A shortened and edited version appeared in Physics Today.
@article{arxiv.2003.09836,
title = {The emergence of magnetic skyrmions},
author = {A. N. Bogdanov and Christos Panagopoulos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.09836},
year = {2020}
}