Posted by: James St. James contact

scientists levitate mice!

And with that, we are one step closer to Marty McFly's hoverboard! NASA scientists confirm they have levitated a mouse using magnetic fields. In a study to help counteract bone loss in deep space, they built a device to simulate varying levels of gravity. Now, I'm just a silly queen who doesn't quite understand all the scientific mumbo-jumbo, but here's the explanation: "It consists of a superconducting magnet that generates a field powerful enough to levitate the water inside living animals, with a space inside warm enough and large enough for tiny creatures to float comfortably in during experiments." The mice seemed agitated at first, and spun themselves around in mid-air, making them dizzy, disoriented, and even more agitated. So the scientists gave them drugs, of course. So they could fly stoned. Gotta love that. "Repeated levitation tests showed the mice, even when (they were later) 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." Very exciting news indeed!



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