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Acoustic Levitation Works On Small Animals

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sounds-like-fun dept.

anthemaniac writes "Researchers for at least two decades have used acoustic levitation to suspend light materials without a container. Wenjun Xie, a materials physicist at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China, has previously used ultrasound fields to levitate globs of iridium and mercury, very heavy materials. Now the scientist has performed the feat with live animals. From the story: '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.' Apparently the ants, spiders and ladybugs endured the trick just fine, but the fish didn't do so well due to lack of water."

3 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. I for one... by sRev · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...welcome our flying ant/spider/dead fish overlords!

  2. doesn't anyone think of the animals? by rwx · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Cue the PETA spokesperson in 3 .. 2 .. 1 ..

  3. Re:Biological heating effects? by pctech3 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    ***Sig Block***

    500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.

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    I didn't steal your sig, I just borrowed it. You can have it back now.

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