Scientists Levitate Mice • Hacker News Board

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#11

Post by tdziuba » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 4:53 AM UTC

In other news, mice discover new reason to be terrified.

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#12

Post by Confusion » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 5:01 AM UTC

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.

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#13

Post by lucumo » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 5:52 AM UTC

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

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#14

Post by arithmetic » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 6:43 AM UTC

hristov wrote: post #3

""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.

I'm totally calling PETA.

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#15

Post by arithmetic » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 6:44 AM UTC

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

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#16

Post by roundsquare » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 6:59 AM UTC

lucumo wrote: post #13

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

Flip the levitating device upside down and put it above the mouse? That would be my guess :)

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#17

Post by ars » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 7:05 AM UTC

joeyo wrote: post #8

DannoHung wrote: post #2

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

According to the original paper, they needed a 17 Tesla magnet to lift a 10 g mouse. I'm not exactly sure how to extrapolate that, but if it's linear it seems like you would need on the order of 100 kiloTelsa to lift a 150 lb person.

I'm quite sure it's not linear by weight supported.

The field exists in the entire area, each water molecule gets supported individually by the field. So the field needs to be strong enough to lift a single water molecule against earths gravity. (Plus some extra since water is also lifting misc other stuff in the body.)

You don't need a stronger field, you need one that covers the entire area, at the original strength. To do that you do need it somewhat stronger due to the dropoff by distance from the magnet.

But you don't need it stronger to support the weight.

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#18

Post by ars » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 7:13 AM UTC

lucumo wrote: post #13

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

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.

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#19

Post by tfh » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 7:50 AM UTC

jrbedard wrote: post #6

DannoHung wrote: post #2

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

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

First you have to think for a braking system for the hoverboards.

Re: Scientists Levitate Mice

#20

Post by sown » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 7:57 AM UTC

jrbedard wrote: post #6

DannoHung wrote: post #2

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

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

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