Acoustic Levitation Works On Small Animals

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."

Comments

Small Aminals?

[eno2001]

Come on. A spider ISN'T an aminal. When I read "small aminal" the first thing I think of is Benji the Dog for example. Call me when you can levitate Benji. Otherwise, shut the hell up.

Re:Small Aminals?

[eno2001]

Since I SAY so. That's what time it is chump! A spider is an insect, not a aminal.

Re:Small Aminals?

[eno2001]

Exactamundo chucky! THat's teh exactly what I was trying to say. A spider might be a aminal but it's not a "small aminal". It's a nearly microscopic aminal. I know this for a fact because I've seen the web page on teh internets where they compare the size of a spider against the size of the penii of various Republican politicians.