Scientists Levitate Mice for NASA

sterlingda writes to tell us that scientists have built a mouse-levitating superconducting magnet, working on behalf of NASA to study variable levels of gravity. The group hopes to ascertain what physiological impacts prolonged exposure to microgravity might have. "Repeated levitation tests showed the mice, even when 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."

No video?

[genner]

Why no video?
Flying mice on youtube would bring more media coverage of this.

no side effects?!

[ILuvRamen]

So, wouldn't it generally levitating the mouse using the iron in its blood? So if your blood cells are yanking your body around, wouldn't that sort of interrupt the normal flow of blood and cause damage to the walls of your veins and capillaries and arteries and all that?

Re:bipolar mice?

[x_IamSpartacus_x]

Ok... I know I should be more attentive but when I first read that headline I thought;

Scientists Levitate Miss USA

That would be something... Maybe they can just levitate that dress...

Re:B-b-b-but, EM radiation!

[jeffb (2.718)]

That said, if you move a wire through it, you'll generate one hell of an electic field, but only while the strength of the magnetic field through the wire is changing.

Wait, if you move a wire through an unchanging field (perpendicularly), you'll induce a current, right? You'll also induce one if you hold a wire still in a field whose strength is changing.

On a related note, axons are in many ways like long wires. Move around in a high magnetic field, and you'll notice odd effects. It's more of a problem for people than for mice -- our axons run longer, and so inductive effects are stronger.

Re:bipolar mice?

[ccarson]

The liver contains larger amounts of iron (a ferrous metal). I wonder if it hurts the mice to be lifted by their livers. I wonder if the liver warms and cooks while they're still alive.

Magnetic Field to add Gravity in Space

[tromtone]

From the other perspective, could this technology be used to add "gravity" (or a downward force equal to the Earth's gavity at the crust) in space? ...an alternative to centripetal force?

Re:bipolar mice?

[Hurricane78]

Oh boy, you can’t believe how much I do agree on that one.

But why does anyone think preparations like white flour, sugar or that liquid of heat-wrecked proteins called "UHT-milk" (no matter from what mammal) are even food?

Re:bipolar mice?

[rubycodez]

rotten? cheese is made with help of enzyme, fruit juice can be used. not all cheeses are ripened with bacteria

Re:B-b-b-but, EM radiation!

[jeffb (2.718)]

Oh, but they do get interesting, if you disable the rate-of-field-change safeties that are integrated into clinical scanners. Our lab does high-resolution MR imaging in small animals, and if we don't disable those safeties, we can't get the gradients we need. (In this field, "gradient" refers to a varying magnetic field that's overlaid on the nominally constant and uniform field from the main magnet.)

Even without involving the gradients, if you move your head too quickly near the bore of our 7T magnet, it can have very odd effects. I'm not sure of the mechanism, but I've assumed it has to do with currents induced in axons. They aren't wires, but they are conductive channels, and as Volta showed, they do respond to purely electrical stimulation.

(I hope someone better versed in MR physics will chime in here. I'm just a lowly computer guy, relying on what I've soaked up from my co-workers due to curiosity and overheard discussions.)