Physicists have 'solved' mystery of levitation

Pretty sweet, eh? Finally, it appears that the holy grail has been unveiled, well at least for the time being. Scientists have figured out how to make levitation a reality by reversing a pheneomenon known as the Casimir force so that it repels instead of attracts.

This opens up a huge can of worms, as well as the potential to be crusing around town on my own hoverboard by 2013. What all could this tech be used for. Surely if it makes its way to the forefront, our world will not be the same.

Levitation confirmed, hoverboards around the corner.

Levitation has been elevated from being pure science fiction to science fact, according to a study reported today by physicists.

In theory the discovery could be used to levitate a person
In earlier work the same team of theoretical physicists showed that invisibility cloaks are feasible.

Now, in another report that sounds like it comes out of the pages of a Harry Potter book, the University of St Andrews team has created an 'incredible levitation effects’ by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together.

Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, have worked out a way of reversing this pheneomenon, known as the Casimir force, so that it repels instead of attracts.

Their discovery could ultimately lead to frictionless micro-machines with moving parts that levitate But they say that, in principle at least, the same effect could be used to levitate bigger objects too, even a person.

Metamaterial science and plasmonics are going to be THE hot topic for the next couple of decades.

But I wouldn't be waiting for that hoverboard just yet. Electrical power storage systems of a Star Trek sort of nature, really whacked-out stealth, a new sort of laser and much better solar cells than anything you've seen in the literature yet seem to be the current Real Big Things I hear talked up around the virtual water cooler.

A thread about this subject already exists.
It can be found here.
News: Casimir force reversed