

Scientists Levitate Mice - brandnewly
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32760311/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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DannoHung
I wonder how much money and power it would take to build a human sized
magnetic levitation chamber...

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jrbedard
I would be more interested to get in the Hoverboard business with this kind of
technology.

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sown
It seems like this hoverboard, though, would work best over water.

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tocomment
I wonder if there is enough water in the air under a potential hoverboard or
in soil, roads, etc?

I guess hovering over water, snow and ice would still be cool.

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LargeWu
This reminds me of a Mythbusters episode I saw where they tried numerous
"antigravity" devices. A few of them did manage to levitate objects, but
worked either on magnetic fields or thrust. There was no alteration of
gravity.

That said, I'm a bit confused as to how scientists want to apply this
achievement to low-gravity environments. Since gravity is not actually being
altered here, it doesn't seem relevant. Am i totally off base here?

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ynniv
"Gravity" isn't being created, but a uniform force is being applied at the
molecular level, which is effectively the same. It is currently being applied
"up" at roughly the same force as gravity, causing levitation. Vectoring this
force down instead of up will produce force indistinguishable from gravity.

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hristov
""It actually kicked around and started to spin, and without friction, it
could spin faster and faster, and we think that made it even more
disoriented," said researcher Yuanming Liu, a physicist at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. They decided to mildly sedate the next mouse
they levitated, which seemed content with floating. "

That mouse got high in more ways than one.

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dhimes
"Then it proceeded to travel North"

I totally made that up.

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sown
Here's a levitating frog:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1vyB-O5i6E>

1997, as Confusion mentions.

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lucumo
I wonder if they can somehow modify this to create artificial gravity. Anybody
here who knows something about this subject?

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ars
Diamagnetism only repels, it doesn't attract. All materials are diamagnetic.

Ferromagnetism does both, attracts and repels, but only certain materials are
ferromagnetic.

It's not gravity BTW, it's magnetism.

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lucumo
Thanks. I'm going to read up on that :-)

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Confusion
The first living creature to be levitated was a frog, in 1997:
<http://www.hfml.ru.nl/froglev.html>. This link is completely devoid of news.

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brandnewly
"Other researchers have made live frogs and grasshoppers float in midair
before, but such research with mice, being closer biologically to humans,
could help in studies to counteract bone loss due to reduced gravity over long
spans of time, as might be expected in deep space missions or on the surfaces
of other planets."

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Confusion
If you can levitate a frog, then you can levitate a mouse. Nothing new in
that. Research on mice yields better predictions as to what would happen to
humans. Nothing new in that.

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xelfer
6 years until hoverboards are mainstream.. I'd say we're right on target.

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arithmetic
Have you seen Steve Jobs? I'm pretty sure he can levitate. :)

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stuartk
All science aside, I actually laughed out loud at this one.

If there's anything funnier than a small floating mouse spinning out of
control, I can't think of it.

