Chinese mad scientists levitate fish with sound

You can pour over that gift-guide all you want, but in the end all most of us really want for the holidays is peace on earth. Short of that, levitating fish comes always comes in as a close second in our inter-office pools, so it looks like we've got ourselves a little Festivus miracle on our hands: using merely the powers of sound waves, some crazy Chinese scientists have managed to achieve sustained levitation of small objects, with their most recent achievements being a whole collection of small insects, a tadpole, fish eggs and even a fish. Of course, in our imagination the fish always have cute little water bubbles around their heads, but in these tests the fish "did not fare as well" as its air-breathing companions, despite the scientists' attempts at injecting water into the levitation field. Sad. Apparently the real purpose of these tests is to develop a method of handling dangerous compounds without the risks introduced by using a container which could potentially corrode or react badly with the compound. We can't say as much for the industrial applications of levitating fish, but it's still pretty dang awesome.

[Via Futurismic]

[Jon @ Dec 1st 2006 11:31AM]

My favorite part: "The ant and ladybug appeared fine after 30 minutes of levitation, although the fish did not fare as well, due to the inadequate water supply, the scientists report."

[Ben @ Dec 1st 2006 11:32AM]

Can anyone say Angels & Demons?

[Brad @ Dec 1st 2006 11:43AM]

This particular method is not useful for anti-matter containment. The technology shown uses sound (ie: pressure) waves to suspend the object. These pressure waves require the presence of matter (or anti-matter) to exist. Since there is no way to transition from a matter-based pressure wave generator (eg: speaker cone) to an anti-matter fluid, anti-matter uses are impossible.

That's the beauty of electromagnetic waves as used in Angels and Demons... EM waves transcend matter and anti-matter frivolities like annihilation.

[PDubNYC @ Dec 1st 2006 11:35AM]

Angels & Demons

[starwarskid @ Dec 1st 2006 11:40AM]

Angels and Demons

[Erik @ Dec 1st 2006 7:51PM]

he containment method used in Angels & Demons was also ridiculous.

Magnetic Bottles can only contain charged particles; charged particles cannot be contained at the density required to form liquid droplets. Either the antimatter was not charged, in which case the magnetic field would not hold the antimatter, it would leak and annihilate taking the lab with it, or the antimatter was a charged plasma, and at the inferred density the repulsive Coulomb force would blow the sample apart and out of the bottle to annihilate taking the lab with it.

Dan Brown did a disservice to his novel by trying to explain too much. He also did a disservice to everyone by being a terrible writer.

[Brad @ Dec 1st 2006 11:47AM]

FYI: it's "pore over" not "pour over". The last thing I want to do is dispense liquid onto my screen while reading a gift guide. :)

[Little Man Buz @ Dec 1st 2006 12:31PM]

I'm calling PETA right this second! [sound of phone dialing]

[taz @ Dec 1st 2006 1:19PM]

Does PETA have a China chapter?

[Pudders @ Dec 1st 2006 12:57PM]

Can you say Shushi surprise!

[Rohit Kapur @ Dec 1st 2006 1:00PM]

Shushi surprise

(Oh come on... If not me, then somebody else would've!)

[Scabies @ Dec 1st 2006 1:14PM]

Oh the humanity!

Suspended with sound... hmm. I imagine a scale translation used to levitate humans, hypothetically, would kill them, or at least damage one's hearing severely.
Though, we all (well, not all probably) have seen demonstrations of subwoofers and their accompanying SPL (or was it harmonic resonance?) making hair stand up/out, looking like an erratic static demonstration.

[shaun @ Dec 1st 2006 1:44PM]

SWEEEEET!!!!

One step closer to my Luke Skywalker style land-speeder!

[Unomi @ Dec 1st 2006 2:15PM]

One can found more about this when searching for 'sound levitation'. There has been tests (video!) with plastic cups etc. wich where succesfully levitated.

The only thing is, moving is problematic, since the sound directs the object to a centre to keep it in balance.

Don't know what the stomach does with such low wave vibrations. Some people are sensitive for brown noise.

- Unomi -

[cjrenaud @ Dec 2nd 2006 6:59PM]

Ben Folds and Improv Anywhere respectfully disagree with the brown note theory.

[chris @ Dec 1st 2006 2:57PM]

This is very interesting. I've thought about how cool it would be to have a system of mass transit - trains - that were suspended using magnets, givnig a near zero friction motion. Of course stopping becomes an issue, but I'm sure the power to stop and start it for longer trips (not trips with stops every few blocks, we're talking interstate travel or more) would be a significantly less than traditional fuel use.

But magnets ... I don't know enough about the idea to know if it could work without all kinds of magnet related issues... imagine using sound to do this.

Just a thought. :)

[Tim @ May 6th 2007 9:03AM]

@chris

They already have trains like that, they're called Maglev trains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev_train

[Tech^Cellfish @ Dec 1st 2006 3:59PM]

Cool, bring more news like this!

But: I see fish that size as animals, insects not. If the experiment is not OK for humans, don't test it on animals

[Wonderboy @ Dec 1st 2006 4:09PM]

Wait, so are midgets not "people" then? Why do you discriminate against "animals" that just happen to be smaller than others? If you're going to be all tree-huggish and condemn animal testing, you can't pick and choose which animals get protected. Otherwise you'll start to sound like a "vegetarian" that eats brazilian beef but not american beef...

No one likes a discriminator.

[decypher @ Dec 1st 2006 4:04PM]

This is so sad. They could have just levitated the plastic bag with water and the fish. This tragedy could have been avoided. The first years of new technology are always so dark. We must thank this fish for his sacrifice.

[myheaditches @ Dec 1st 2006 6:21PM]

Chris:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev_train

[jnasato @ Dec 1st 2006 6:25PM]

Edward Leedskalnin's secrets are soon to be revealed!!!!!

[Scott McLellan @ Dec 1st 2006 6:59PM]

yeah...that horrible Dan Brown book

[Joe091 @ Dec 2nd 2006 11:56AM]

This is the beginning of that device they had in Atlas Shrugged. And I thought that was just made up...

[Tim @ May 6th 2007 9:01AM]

@cjrenaud

don't forget the Mythbusters team!

[RJRibeira @ Dec 2nd 2006 7:08PM]

Supposedly, the aztecs (or mayas or incas I can't remember) used to be able to do this stuff. They report being able to lift up and transport large rocks and things with specific sound frequencies. No one knows if its true or not of course, but this may lend some validity to their claim.

[LiquidAg @ Dec 4th 2006 11:41PM]

The fish is going to be messed up even IF you get water around it.

Sound = vibrations

Fish have a "lateral line" system along the sides of their bodies that is intended to sense vibrations around them, like a mini-radar. It's sensitive enough where dolphins can use their sonar to harrass sharks and drive them away.

Now spammed that system, which is connected to their Central Nervous System, with enough sound to float them.

It's like sandblasting a soup cracker. (Dilbert)

[David 'silver tongued queen' Gold @ Dec 6th 2006 1:07AM]

When you use the word phonetically pronounced 'por' in the sense you did, it's spelled "pore." You pore over the gift guide. Look it up. I'm right.

[David \\\'silver tongued queen\\\' Gold @ Dec 6th 2006 1:10AM]

Oh shi-...someone else made the correction already. Still not changed. Sigh...ignorance.

[cloud811 @ Dec 6th 2006 1:03PM]

if you did this with a person, assume you made a machine large enough, would it make them deaf you think? Even ultra sound or sound waves you can't hear can still damage your ear drums. hmmm i wonder.