On the up and up: levitating particles & a frog, with sound & magnets

Two visual demonstrations of levitation, each using known physics properties: 1. Using sound waves to levitate particles [REFERENCE: “Three-dimensional Mid-air Acoustic Manipulation by Ultrasonic Phased Arrays,” Yoichi Ochiai, Takayuki Hoshi, Jun Rekimoto, (2013) arXiv:1312.4006.. Thanks to @BetsytheDevine for bringing this to our attention.]: 2. The Ig Nobel Prize-winning levitation of a frog, using magnets [REFERENCE: “Of […]

The scientist who says he rose up against crime

Prof John Hagelin‘s decision not to run against Mitt Romney and Barack Obama left this year’s US presidential race without a major candidate who is a scientist and who acknowledges – publicly – his ability to both counteract gravity and prevent crime. Two decades ago, Hagelin and a team of fellow scientists performed a bold experiment. […]

“No one had tried such a silly thing before” — Geim

With this idea in mind and, allegedly, on a Friday night, I poured water inside the lab’s electromagnet when it was at its maximum power. Pouring water in one’s equipment is certainly not a standard scientific approach, and I cannot recall why I behaved so ‘unprofessionally’. Apparently, no one had tried such a silly thing […]