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Scientists Levitate Mice for NASA
sterlingda writes to tell us that scientists have built a mouse-levitating superconducting magnet, working on behalf of NASA to study variable levels of gravity. The group hopes to ascertain what physiological impacts prolonged exposure to microgravity might have. "Repeated levitation tests showed the mice, even when not sedated, could quickly acclimate to levitation inside the cage. After three or four hours, the mice acted normally, including eating and drinking. The strong magnetic fields did not seem to have any negative impacts on the mice in the short term, and past studies have shown that rats did not suffer from adverse effects after 10 weeks of strong, non-levitating magnetic fields."
Look for The Flying DutchFrog to see electromagnet experiments in levitation on other vertebrates.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
No, it works on the water in the animal. Red blood cells aren't ferromagnetic; all the iron is in haemoglobin, not little metallic bits.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
Wait? Wha? Highschool physics much? How was this post modded 5+ informative when it's so wrong?
With 16T, you can levitate an object of any size so long as it predominantly consists of water. It's not like a 1g frog will float, but a 2g frog will fall in the same magnetic field. The reason why the things floated are small is because its easier to make small magnetic fields. If you have a current going around a loop, and you double the radius of that loop, your peak magnetic field drops by a factor of 4. You do not need 150kT to levitate a human. You just need a magnet that is physically larger with the same field strength and geometry.
One more thing. It's not just the magnitude of the magnetic field that controls whether something will levitate or not. The key is that the magnetic field gets weaker as you move up. Wikipedia tells me that levitation power is proportional to B*dB/dZ. (the magnitude of the field times how quickly it diminishes as you move upward) That is to say, if you had a 150kT magnetic field, and it was constant everywhere, you wouldn't float in it.