A Mighty Mouse Takes Flight

Once in awhile a story comes along at just the right time in the news cycle that it absolutely confounds a blogger with a clever, if near irrelevant way to spin its content. Case in point: anti-grav rodents.

As Livescience explains:

Scientists have now levitated mice using magnetic fields. Other researchers have made live frogs and grasshoppers float in mid-air before, but such research with mice, being closer biologically to humans, could help in studies to counteract bone loss due to reduced gravity over long spans of time, as might be expected in deep space missions or on the surfaces of other planets.

What you're looking at here is a floating mouse. For real. This isn't a Disney/Marvel mashup joke about Mickey and Magneto (although it should be), but rather science at its cutest.

The critter is floating because NASA commissioned a study about magnetic fields, and the University of Missouri was happy to oblige, making mice float by applying external magnetic fields to their body water inside a special chamber.

Io9 reports that, aside from disorientation, the experiment didn't present any negative effects, meaning perhaps one day, humans will travel through magnetic rather than pneumatic tubes a la "Futurama."

Get excited!

Filed Under: magnets, mice, NASA, science

Categories: News