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Researchers Levitated a Small Tray Using Nothing but Light

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Max G. Levy

Science
Feb 12, 2021 2:00 PM

Researchers Levitated a Small Tray Using Nothing but Light

One day a "magic carpet" based on this light-induced flow technology
could carry climate sensors high in the atmosphere--wind permitting.

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ball floating
Photograph: Yagi Studio/Getty Images

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In the basement of a University of Pennsylvania engineering building,
Mohsen Azadi and his labmates huddled around a set of blinding LEDs
set beneath an acrylic vacuum chamber. They stared at the lights,
their cameras, and what they hoped would soon be some action from the
two tiny plastic plates sitting inside the enclosure. "We didn't know
what we were expecting to see," says Azadi, a mechanical engineering
PhD candidate. "But we hoped to see something."

Max G. Levy is freelance science journalist based in Los Angeles,
California writing about tiny neurons, vast cosmos, and all the
science in between. He received a PhD in Chemical & Biological
Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Contributor

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Topicsphysicsmaterials scienceGravityengineeringatmospheremeteorology
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