Acoustic Levitation Works On Small Animals

anthemaniac writes "Researchers for at least two decades have used acoustic levitation to suspend light materials without a container. Wenjun Xie, a materials physicist at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China, has previously used ultrasound fields to levitate globs of iridium and mercury, very heavy materials. Now the scientist has performed the feat with live animals. From the story: 'Xie and his colleagues employed an ultrasound emitter and reflector that generated a sound pressure field between them. The emitter produced roughly 20-millimeter-wavelength sounds, meaning it could in theory levitate objects half that wavelength or less.' Apparently the ants, spiders and ladybugs endured the trick just fine, but the fish didn't do so well due to lack of water."

Biological heating effects?

[BWJones (18351)]

One might also wonder about some of the biological effects of energy this high, especially with animals that contain more water. Heating is always a concern and something that many high powered ultrasound devices have not adequately addressed with developing biological systems.

As an aside, I seem to remember that former Admiral Bobby Inman served on the board of directors for (SAIC) and was involved in some acoustic work along these lines, but I think they were focusing on inanimate objects. I could be wrong about that, but it came out of a conversation I had years ago with members of the science directorate.

Re:Biological heating effects?

[Red Flayer (890720)]

Well, ultrasound is used to create the field... but the emitter that produces the waves for levitation has waves of much, much longer wavelength (and therefore much lower frequency). I think instead of at the molecular level, the concern would be at the macro level... that is, can animal tissue deal with rapid mechanical manipulation from the soundwaves?

And is it possible for animals to have cavities or structures with a resonant frequency equal to that of the emitted waves? That's where the real danger lies, I think.

Re:

[Yvanhoe (564877)]

Indeed. the fact that is reassuring is that there is no invisible harm like with microwaves. Here you will know you use to much energy when bones break...

Re:

[Clever7Devil (985356)]

I'm glad someone else's mind went to resonant frequency on this one.

"My new hoverboard was a lot of fun, until my duodenum imploded."

Re:

[LordLucless (582312)]

What would happen if you turned the device upside down and mounted to to the bottom of a platform or a car? Would it take too much energy?

Unless you had a very small car, absolutely nothing. It's got nothing to do with the amount of energy used, but the wavelength of the soundwaves used.

Re:

[theredmenace (932087)]

You're concerned about organisms that contain MORE water? The specific heat capacity of water is greater than that of most materials, seems to me that more water would be a good thing.

Fish difficulties? Not for me.

[Red Flayer (890720)]

Apparently the ants, spiders and ladybugs endured the trick just fine, but the fish didn't do so well due to lack of water."

Well, if you put the fish in water, for some reason the restriction on the size of the fish being 1/2 the wavelength disappears.

It's even easier to get fish to levitate in water if you never feed them.

Not for me either

[krell (896769)]

"It's even easier to get fish to levitate in water if you never feed them."

One stick of dynamite does the job a lot quicker.

Re:Not for me either

[Red Flayer (890720)]

One stick of dynamite does the job a lot quicker.

Yeah, but last time I did that, my mom^H^H^Hwife got a little upset about the mess in the basement.

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[mikael (484)]

"It's even easier to get fish to levitate in water if you never feed them."

One stick of dynamite does the job a lot quicker


Attempts at levitating large creatures such as whales using this method have so far proved unsuccessful.

Re:Not for me either

[krell (896769)]

"Attempts at levitating large creatures such as whales using this method have so far proved unsuccessful."

Oh? Quite successful [perp.com], considering the large amount of airborne blubber that resulted. At least for a few seconds, anyway.

Re:

[owlnation (858981)]

Attempts at levitating large creatures such as whales using this method have so far proved unsuccessful.

With an infinite improbability drive you can also make them fall from space.

Don't worry

[PIPBoy3000 (619296)]

They have magnetic levitation [hfml.ru.nl] for fish and frogs.

I for one...

[EvilTwinSkippy (112490)]

I for one welcome our levitating ant overlords.

Harry Potter III

[krell (896769)]

"I for one welcome our levitating ant overlords."

Come on, it wasn't that good of a movie! You also aren't going to have any levitating without that little Putin elf guy, anyway.

Re:I for one...

[EvilTwinSkippy (112490)]

That's deaf levitating ant overlords to you. :)

WHAT???

That explains a lot...

[krell (896769)]

I always suspected that Adam Ant had no sense of hearing.

Thats nothing

[LiquidCoooled (634315)]

I was once lay on the bed and my cat decided to curl up in the small of my back.
When I let out a ripper of a fart I swear he hovered right there for about 15 seconds.

(Incidentally, after that event he never lay on my back again)

Pythons?

[Joao (155665)]

"but the fish didn't do so well due to lack of water." To devise a fairer system of test, a team of our researchers spent eighteen months in Antarctica living like penguins, and subsequently dying like penguins - only quicker - proving that the penguin is a clever little sod in his own environment. /python

50 Hz?

[fragMasterFlash (989911)]

These experiments were performed with 20 mm wavelangth sound. Thats 50 Hz to you and me. So how long until the guys with the subwoofer equipped cars convert them to hovercraft?

Re:50 Hz?

[cnettel (836611)]

Ehum, only if sound travelled 1 meter per second in air. Hint: it doesn't. It's more like 340, hence the frequency is 50 * 340 = 17,000 Hz.

Re:

[djaxl (543958)]

17 kHz is audible to humans and most animals. I wonder how loud the sound was in order to achieve levitation.

About this loud [youtube.com].

Re:

[sm62704 (957197)]

From your link:

Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Macromedia's Flash Player. Get the latest flash player.

Not very damned likely!

Re:50 Hz?

[jimstapleton (999106)]

it'd have to be lower... it said "half the wavelength", in TFA, assuming 2 meters for a person (thats a bit over), This site (http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-wavelengt h.htm) [sengpielaudio.com] suggests that 85.75hz is what is needed. Using 6 feet people (12 foot wavelengths), we get 93.8hz

Technicality

[Rob T Firefly (844560)]

Apparently the ants, spiders and ladybugs endured the trick just fine

Actually, they're fairly pissed. They only seem "just fine" because they lack the proper fingers to angrily flip off the scientists.

Re:Technicality

[ZombieRoboNinja (905329)]

Especially the ladybugs, who hastened to emphasize that they can ALREADY FLY.

Re:

[EvilTwinSkippy (112490)]

A ladybug needs a levitator like a fish needs a bicycle.

Diminutive!

[Short Circuit (52384)]

I'll have you know that none of those animals were small. The System Reference Document [systemrefe...uments.org] doesn't list them, but I'm confident they'd be identified as "diminutive," or smaller still.

Bad day for arachnaphobics

[ciaohound (118419)]

Now it's levitating spiders? I am so screwed.

Re:

[Esion Modnar (632431)]

At least the spiders ain't barking.

Rock Music

[edwardpickman (965122)]

And here I thought heavy metal just made you feel like you being bounced off the ground.

Nothing new

[MECC (8478)]

AC/DC has been doing it for awhile.

Everybody knows...

[SoundGuyNoise (864550)]

...that sheep do not fly as much as they do plummet.

He's never owned a cat then.

[rdewalt (13105)]

I once snuck up on and yelled "Boo" at a rather high strung cat. He levitated about three feet in the air for a moment too.

That's acoustic levitation if I ever saw it.

Marvin the depressed ant

[HangingChad (677530)]

I'm just walking along, minding my own ant business, and all of sudden some jackass decides to levitate me. Oh, that's right, it's so funny to pick on the ants. Everyone picks on the ants. We're just trying to make a living and feed the queen...she gets to drink nectar. Think the rest of us get any nectar? Not us worker ants. You try running around blind trying to follow a scent trail during allergy season. We get stepped on, eaten by other bugs and birds...don't get me started. And then there's the nursery, those ingrates never get enough. Like it's not bad enough putting up with their crap along comes to the dominant species and thinks it's just SO funny to levitate us. Suppose I should be glad they didn't roast us under a magnifying glass like the neighbor kid. Little delinquent. I'll be he grows up to be a career criminal. It's all so meaningless.

I'll believe it

[kick_in_the_eye (539123)]

when pigs fly

Seems like derivation from Bernoulli effect

[tuomas_kaikkonen (843958)]

To me the video seemed like two tubes that generated a derivation from Bernoulli effect.

Some readers seem to mix up infra and ultra. Ultrasound is high frequency sounds.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_Effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound

Re:

[EvilTwinSkippy (112490)]

Technically speaking a spider is in the animal kindom. A mammal? No. A vertebrate? No. But it is still an animal. At least as far as the folks who give things the fancy latin-sounding names are concerned.

Now if they were floating little bits of lichen, or colonies of algae, yes, you could be insulted.

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[FooAtWFU (699187)]

I'm going to go out on a limb and express a certain level of agreement with the original sentiment, if not the original statement - though a spider is indeed a small animal, things would be a lot more interesting if they were levitating something on the scale of a kitten or puppy - which is sort of what the initial headline seemed to say. Teeny little bugs occupy a different sort of cognitive space from "small animals" for most people. Say "Acoustic levitation works on insects" or "bugs" or "bugs and tiny f

Re:Small Aminals?

[BWJones (18351)]

Come on. A spider ISN'T an aminal. (sic)

And this ladies and gentlemen is why we need better education funding and resources with a greater focus on math and science in schools, not to mention spelling and grammar. :-)

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[djrogers (153854)]

[blockquote] Indeed. We have this little chestnut to roast too: "...has previously used ultrasound fields to levitate globs of iridium and mercury, very heavy materials." A 1 gram 'glob' of mercury is equal in weight to 1 gram of feathers. Iridium and mercury may have a higher density, but they are not intrinsically heavy. When even the author of an article is confused about basic physical properties you have to worry, IMHO. [/blockquote] Quite simple really, the ability to levitate an object using this

Re:Small Aminals?

[spun (1352)]

That is SO mammalist of you. Expect a call from the PC police.

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[Speare (84249)]

Funny, when I heard "small animal," I assumed something on the order of protozoa and bacteria. Something down where it's a little harder to discern from plantlife and viruses, unless you refamiliarize yourself with the actual criteria for the animal kingdom.

"Animals are a major group of organisms, classified as the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. In general they are multicellular, capable of locomotion and responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms. Their body plan becomes fixed

Re:Small Aminals?

[ookabooka (731013)]

Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] says that there are a bunch of different classification schemes, but even using the 6-kingdom model, you have Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Of which a spider would fall into the catagory as an animal. If you look at the pylums (the next sub-catagory) a spider would be under Anthropoda which apparently stands for jointed feet.

The success of arthropods is related to their hard exoskeleton, segmentation, and jointed appendages. The appendages are used for feeding, sensory reception, defence, and locomotion. The muscle system is more or less assisted by hydraulics originated from the blood pressure created by the heart [2]. The hydraulic system in spiders is especially well developed.

So technically it IS an animal, and is closely related to crabs. . .*shrug* IMHO it is arguable since we humans always try to classify things into distinct catagories even though there are always exceptions, I'm sure someone will disagree w/ me.

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[jimstapleton (999106)]

I'm so glad biologists don't listen to you...

Spiders are animals, sorry to burst your bubble.

Re:Small Aminals?

[by Anonymous Coward]

No, he's right. Spiders are not aminals.

Re:

[jimstapleton (999106)]

oooh, that is a good point. Sorry, the human brain is wired poorly and often if all the letters are there, and the first and last letters are correct, you won't notice the misspelling. Especially with two relatively similar letters transposed.

hehehehe

Re:Small Aminals?

[Ungrounded Lightning (62228)]

A spider is an insect, not a aminal.

Actually it's an arachnid, not an insect.

(But I'd really like to know what an aminal is.)

Re:

[frank_adrian314159 (469671)]

But I'd really like to know what an aminal is.

It's what my daughter used to call an animal when she was three.

Or how you pronounce it if you want to make yourself sound special...

Re:Small Aminals?

[LunaticTippy (872397)]

An aminal is a type of chemical compound that has two amine groups attached to the same carbon atom. Small aminals would have small amine groups attached to a regular-size carbon atom.