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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."

28 of 182 comments (clear)

  1. Biological heating effects? by BWJones · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One might also wonder about some of the biological effects of energy this high, especially with animals that contain more water. Heating is always a concern and something that many high powered ultrasound devices have not adequately addressed with developing biological systems.

    As an aside, I seem to remember that former Admiral Bobby Inman served on the board of directors for (SAIC) and was involved in some acoustic work along these lines, but I think they were focusing on inanimate objects. I could be wrong about that, but it came out of a conversation I had years ago with members of the science directorate.

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    1. Re:Biological heating effects? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, ultrasound is used to create the field... but the emitter that produces the waves for levitation has waves of much, much longer wavelength (and therefore much lower frequency). I think instead of at the molecular level, the concern would be at the macro level... that is, can animal tissue deal with rapid mechanical manipulation from the soundwaves?

      And is it possible for animals to have cavities or structures with a resonant frequency equal to that of the emitted waves? That's where the real danger lies, I think.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Biological heating effects? by theredmenace · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're concerned about organisms that contain MORE water? The specific heat capacity of water is greater than that of most materials, seems to me that more water would be a good thing.

    3. Re:Biological heating effects? by Clever7Devil · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm glad someone else's mind went to resonant frequency on this one.

      "My new hoverboard was a lot of fun, until my duodenum imploded."

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  2. Fish difficulties? Not for me. by Red+Flayer · · Score: 4, Funny
    Apparently the ants, spiders and ladybugs endured the trick just fine, but the fish didn't do so well due to lack of water."
    Well, if you put the fish in water, for some reason the restriction on the size of the fish being 1/2 the wavelength disappears.

    It's even easier to get fish to levitate in water if you never feed them.
    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  3. Re:Small Aminals? by BWJones · · Score: 5, Funny

    Come on. A spider ISN'T an aminal. (sic)

    And this ladies and gentlemen is why we need better education funding and resources with a greater focus on math and science in schools, not to mention spelling and grammar. :-)

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  4. Re:Small Aminals? by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    That is SO mammalist of you. Expect a call from the PC police.

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  5. Thats nothing by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was once lay on the bed and my cat decided to curl up in the small of my back.
    When I let out a ripper of a fart I swear he hovered right there for about 15 seconds.

    (Incidentally, after that event he never lay on my back again)

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  6. Re:I for one... by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 4, Funny
    That's deaf levitating ant overlords to you. :)

    WHAT???

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  7. 50 Hz? by fragMasterFlash · · Score: 3, Interesting

    These experiments were performed with 20 mm wavelangth sound. Thats 50 Hz to you and me. So how long until the guys with the subwoofer equipped cars convert them to hovercraft?

    1. Re:50 Hz? by cnettel · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ehum, only if sound travelled 1 meter per second in air. Hint: it doesn't. It's more like 340, hence the frequency is 50 * 340 = 17,000 Hz.

    2. Re:50 Hz? by jimstapleton · · Score: 3, Informative

      it'd have to be lower... it said "half the wavelength", in TFA, assuming 2 meters for a person (thats a bit over), This site (http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-wavelengt h.htm) suggests that 85.75hz is what is needed. Using 6 feet people (12 foot wavelengths), we get 93.8hz

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  8. Not for me either by krell · · Score: 3, Funny

    "It's even easier to get fish to levitate in water if you never feed them."

    One stick of dynamite does the job a lot quicker.

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
    1. Re:Not for me either by Red+Flayer · · Score: 3, Funny
      One stick of dynamite does the job a lot quicker.
      Yeah, but last time I did that, my mom^H^H^Hwife got a little upset about the mess in the basement.
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Not for me either by krell · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Attempts at levitating large creatures such as whales using this method have so far proved unsuccessful."

      Oh? Quite successful, considering the large amount of airborne blubber that resulted. At least for a few seconds, anyway.

      --
      Where were you when the voynix came?
  9. Technicality by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Funny
    Apparently the ants, spiders and ladybugs endured the trick just fine
    Actually, they're fairly pissed. They only seem "just fine" because they lack the proper fingers to angrily flip off the scientists.
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    1. Re:Technicality by ZombieRoboNinja · · Score: 5, Funny

      Especially the ladybugs, who hastened to emphasize that they can ALREADY FLY.

  10. Diminutive! by Short+Circuit · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'll have you know that none of those animals were small. The System Reference Document doesn't list them, but I'm confident they'd be identified as "diminutive," or smaller still.

    --
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  11. Re:Small Aminals? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, he's right. Spiders are not aminals.

  12. Don't worry by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    They have magnetic levitation for fish and frogs.

  13. Re:Small Aminals? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Informative

    A spider is an insect, not a aminal.

    Actually it's an arachnid, not an insect.

    (But I'd really like to know what an aminal is.)

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  14. Bad day for arachnaphobics by ciaohound · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now it's levitating spiders? I am so screwed.

    --
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  15. Re:17 kHz is audible to humans and most animals by djaxl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    17 kHz is audible to humans and most animals. I wonder how loud the sound was in order to achieve levitation.

    About this loud.

  16. Marvin the depressed ant by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm just walking along, minding my own ant business, and all of sudden some jackass decides to levitate me. Oh, that's right, it's so funny to pick on the ants. Everyone picks on the ants. We're just trying to make a living and feed the queen...she gets to drink nectar. Think the rest of us get any nectar? Not us worker ants. You try running around blind trying to follow a scent trail during allergy season. We get stepped on, eaten by other bugs and birds...don't get me started. And then there's the nursery, those ingrates never get enough. Like it's not bad enough putting up with their crap along comes to the dominant species and thinks it's just SO funny to levitate us. Suppose I should be glad they didn't roast us under a magnifying glass like the neighbor kid. Little delinquent. I'll be he grows up to be a career criminal. It's all so meaningless.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  17. I'll believe it by kick_in_the_eye · · Score: 5, Funny

    when pigs fly

  18. Re:Small Aminals? by ookabooka · · Score: 3, Informative
    Wikipedia says that there are a bunch of different classification schemes, but even using the 6-kingdom model, you have Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Of which a spider would fall into the catagory as an animal. If you look at the pylums (the next sub-catagory) a spider would be under Anthropoda which apparently stands for jointed feet.

    The success of arthropods is related to their hard exoskeleton, segmentation, and jointed appendages. The appendages are used for feeding, sensory reception, defence, and locomotion. The muscle system is more or less assisted by hydraulics originated from the blood pressure created by the heart [2]. The hydraulic system in spiders is especially well developed.


    So technically it IS an animal, and is closely related to crabs. . .*shrug* IMHO it is arguable since we humans always try to classify things into distinct catagories even though there are always exceptions, I'm sure someone will disagree w/ me.
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  19. Re:Small Aminals? by LunaticTippy · · Score: 3, Funny

    An aminal is a type of chemical compound that has two amine groups attached to the same carbon atom. Small aminals would have small amine groups attached to a regular-size carbon atom.

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  20. Seems like derivation from Bernoulli effect by tuomas_kaikkonen · · Score: 3, Informative

    To me the video seemed like two tubes that generated a derivation from Bernoulli effect.

    Some readers seem to mix up infra and ultra. Ultrasound is high frequency sounds.

    References:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_Effect
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound