I finally found it! When I was in college, I had a math professor that, after the short final was over, he told everyone he wanted to tell them a secret. He then said that as a researcher in the late 1960's, he was given top secret access to Air Force data when he was looking up the gravitational constant in accuracy to the 50th decimal place. While looking that up in the middle of the night, when they were given a window to the mainframe, they found this constant where if you were able to get something to vibrate at this constant, an object would levitate. He and his colleague wrote down the information and had it printed in a SL paper - they thought it was that revolutionary. They were severely reprimanded and the paper printed a retraction. That was the end of his research career.
I thought the professor was a little "mad", but he seemed sincere in telling his story. Then, I saw a statement in the company rag back in 2002 where the head cheese was talking of using sound generators to get the fuselage of a new airplane to basically get it to levitate - and then just use the thrust for the forward movement, and not so much to overcome the drag associated with lift of the airframe via the wing.
Sure enough, this finally has come out. I am actually pretty giddy to finally see this:
Scientists find way to make liquid levitate
11:00 AEST Sat Sep 15 2012In what looks like a magic trick, scientists have developed a way to levitate drops of liquid using sound waves.The US Department of Energy's national laboratory carried out the study to levitate solutions containing different pharmaceuticals in an effort to improve the drug development process.
Releasing their findings this week, scientists said the experiment may lead to the development of new drugs that are easier for the body to absorb and more effective.
The experiment used a contraption consisting of two small speakers that generate sound waves at roughly 22-kilohertz, just above the range humans can hear.
The speakers were positioned one above the other so their sound waves interfered with each other and created what is known as a standing wave.
At points along the standing wave the acoustic pressure from the sound waves was strong enough to cancel out gravity, enabling light objects to hover in midair.
The phenomenon was first discovered by NASA to stimulate microgravity conditions.
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are now using it to try and develop a way to alter the chemical compounds of drugs so they are easier for the body to absorb.
"One of the biggest challenges when it comes to drug development is in reducing the amount of the drug needed to attain the therapeutic benefit," said Argonne X-ray physicist Chris Benmore, who led the study.
"Most drugs on the market are crystalline — they don't get fully absorbed by the body and thus we aren't getting the most efficient use out of them," said Argonne senior manager Yash Vaishnav.
Sources: Argonne National Laboratory ,NBC News.
Author: Alys Francis. Approving editor: Nick Pearson.
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