Ever wonder what it would be like to levitate? I mean real levitation, not some magic trick.
Apparently, Scientists have found the secret of levitation. I read it up in Yahoo, and here’s what the article has to say… (I removed a few bits and pieces so that it won’t be so long to read.
LONDON (AFP) - Scientists have discovered a ground-breaking way of levitating ultra small objects, which may revolutionize the design of micro-machines, a new report says.
Physicists said they can create “incredible levitation effects” by manipulating so-called Casimir force, which normally causes objects to stick together by quantum force.
The phenomenon could be used to improve the performances of everyday devices ranging from car airbags to computer chips, say Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin from Saint Andrews University.
Casimir force — discovered in 1948 and first measured in 1997 — can be seen in a gecko’s ability to stick to a surface with just one toe.
Now the British scientists say they can reverse the Casimir force to cause an object to repel rather than attract another in a vacuum.
Leonhardt stressed that the practice is possible only for micro-objects.
But he underlined that, although in principle it may one day be possible to levitate humans, that day is a long way off.
“At the moment, in practice it is only going to be possible for micro-objects with the current technology, since this quantum force is small and acts only at short ranges,” he said.
Their research was to be published in the New Journal of Physics.
Wouldn’t it be great? One day, people will be able to levitate. Of course, the article says the technology is still a long way off, and it’s still only a “possibility”, but it’s still nice to dream that one day, you can “fly”.