Scientists Levitate Small Animals

LiveScience ^ | 29 Nov 2006 | Charles Q. Choi

[FLOutdoorsman]

Scientists have now levitated small live animals using sounds that are, well, uplifting.

In the past, researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, China, used ultrasound fields to successfully levitate globs of the heaviest solid and liquid—iridium and mercury, respectively. The aim of their work is to learn how to manufacture everything from pharmaceuticals to alloys without the aid of containers. At times compounds are too corrosive for containers to hold, or they react with containers in other undesirable ways.

"An interesting question is, 'What will happen if a living animal is put into the acoustic field?' Will it also be stably levitated?" researcher Wenjun Xie, a materials physicist at Northwestern Polytechnical University, told LiveScience.

Xie and his colleagues employed an ultrasound emitter and reflector that generated a sound pressure field between them. The emitter produced roughly 20-millimeter-wavelength sounds, meaning it could in theory levitate objects half that wavelength or less.

[FLOutdoorsman]

Nothing really new, Nasa has been doing this for years.

[edcoil]

Some say the Egyptians built the pyramids this way.

[ColdSteelTalon]

I can levitate many things. Ping pong balls, feathers, food and drinks to my moth when I need to... ;)

[ASOC]

At times compounds are too corrosive for containers to hold, or they react with containers in other undesirable ways.



So, these guys are working on Universal Solvent?

[frogjerk]

Anti gravity? Or reverse it and have artificial gravity?

[CholeraJoe]

Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley learned to do this their first year at Hogwarts.

[taxed2death]

Coral Castle too, more recently.

[Red Badger]

Calypso Louie says the pyramids were built with flying machines, invented by black people from the mothership.......

[nevergore]

I levitate my wife's Shih Tzu when the dang thing keeps barking.....

[frogjerk]

I can levitate many things. Ping pong balls, feathers, food and drinks to my moth when I need to... ;)

[dangus]

Any fans of Don Herbert ("Dune") out there?

[Squidpup]

Reminds me of the "squirrel launcher" video clip

[Tijeras_Slim]

Nothing really new, Nasa has been doing this for years.

Heck, I was doing it with Estes rockets in the early 70's.

[Inwoodian]

Didn't Richard Gere or Liberace use one of these things on a hamster?

[Kenton]

Scientists have now levitated small live animals using sounds that are, well, uplifting.

I used to levitate when I listened to Pink Floyd. ;)

[FLOutdoorsman]

I actually was thinking Richard Gere would have been mentioned in less than 10 posts..Geeze FReepers slacking today.

[cripplecreek]

Richard Gere just makes small animals disappear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpW-5BzQRr8

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***So, these guys are working on Universal Solvent?***

For heaven's sake don't drop any on the floor!

[RegulatorCountry]

"I can levitate many things ... food and drinks to my moth when I need to"

Just train it to land, no need for fancy levitation, lol.

[DejaJude]

Any fans of Don Herbert ("Dune") out there?

It's Frank Herbert, and that involved spice and the folding of space.

[cripplecreek]

Took me 17 posts to find the clip.

[Kirkwood]

Let's seem 'em do a cat, a chainsaw, and a flaming stick at the same time!

[Liberty Valance]

[LexBaird]

[doc30]

If acoustic levitation depends an object being half the wavelength of the sound used, then very long waves could levitate humans. My only concern would be if that sound wave was a harmonic of the Brown Note.

[Alter Kaker]

I actually have a drum of alcahest sitting out in my basement. Want it?

[Exeter]

CAT JUGGLING!!? You sick b****rd!

[dangus]

Well, that should get Mark Morford's attention, anyway!

[Hegemony Cricket]

Don Herbert's "Dune" was not nearly as successful as Frank Herbert's...

[Liberty Valance]

beware the spice...

[ASOC]

nah, but I bet could use the drum for ammor plate, if I could only figure out how to cut it up.....

[saganite]

Phht. No big deal. GM is levitating cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COK8aqXs8h0

[Alter Kaker]

The drum is made from run-of-the-mill adamant. Buy your own.

[Oberon]

The drum is made of unobtainium.

[Constitution Day]

Hmph.

Have they determined the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

bookmark

[Vicomte13]

Two questions:

(1) Isn't Osmium the densest solid, not Iridium?

(2) What's "The Brown Note"? (It has ominous, or perhaps just messy, connotations.)

[Constitution Day]

It's quite obviously a Photoshopped image. DUH!

You cat people are certainly a reactionary lot.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

OH MY GOD! CAT JUGGLING!

(Apologies to Steve Martin)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Someone told me all the "spice" was is worm s#!t.

[cripplecreek]

Actually found a clip of magnetic levitation of a frog.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1402804343064442634&q=Frog+levitation

[dangus]

It's OK... That's Krugman's cat he's juggling. (from National Review Online's Krugman's Cat Economic Indicator.)

[twhitak]

Any fans of Don Herbert ("Dune") out there?

I thought it was L. Ron Herbert.

[dangus]

Bwahaha! You got me...

OK, kids... now we're going to use sound waves to rupture the internal organs of disgustingly obese, homosexual war barons. Be sure to get your Quidzach Hadarach's (sp???) permission, first!

[CholeraJoe]

Weirdo!

[uglybiker]

Scientists Levitate Small Animals

My God! They're cat juggling!!

[dangus]

>> (1) Isn't Osmium the densest solid, not Iridium?

(2) What's "The Brown Note"? (It has ominous, or perhaps just messy, connotations.) <<

No. You owe the oracle a copy of Donnie and Marie Osmium's "Brown Album."

[Lee'sGhost]

Maybe Don was Frank's less successful brother.

[dangus]

(Yes, Osmium actually is more dense.)

[TC Rider]

I used to levitate when I listened to Pink Floyd. ;)

I vaguely recall doing that. Seems like it required some specialized apparatus though. A black-light, a strobe, lots of blue smoke...