Overfloater

U.S. scientists have found a way to levitate the very smallest objects using the forces of quantum mechanics.

(the rest of the post is to be read while listening to or simultaniously watching Levitate Me)

They said they had detected and measured a force that comes into play at the molecular level using certain combinations of molecules that repel one another. The repulsion can be used to hold molecules aloft, in essence levitating them, creating virtually friction-free parts for tiny devices, the researchers said. The team, including researchers at the National Institutes of Health, has not yet levitated an object, but claim they now knows how to do it. The group has already filed for patents.

By reducing the friction that hinders motion and contributes to wear and tear, the new technique provides a theoretical means for improving machinery at the microscopic and even molecular level. By altering and combining molecules, tiny machines could be devised which could have applications in surgery, manufacturing food and fuel and boosting computer speed.

As devices became smaller and smaller, they would fall prey to what is known as the Casimir force, an attractive force that comes into play when two very tiny metallic surfaces make very close contact. In very small objects, this force can cause moving parts to stick together, an effect known as stiction. A Russian team had predicted this force could be reversed using the right combination of materials. For the experiment, the team immersed a gold-coated sphere in a liquid and measured the force as the sphere was first attracted to a metallic plate, then repelled from a plate made from silica.