NASA's Levitating Mice

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warpfactor999

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This article from Popular Mechanics Dec 2009:

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory seeking ways to study the effects of weightlessness on astronauts have succeeded in levitating small mice using a 17-tesla magnet. The magnetic field is so strong that it affects the water in the animal's tissues prompting a repulsive magnetic force that suspends the rodent in the air. It takes a superconducting magnet operating at minus 456 F to float a 10 gram mouse within a 2.6 inch bore, which is kept at room temperature. The magnetic field is applied evenly to keep the mice hovering in place, and scientists say rodents acclimate to the test in about four hours. Lessons learned could prevent astronaut bone deterioration during long missions.

Geez...I can't wait until zero G rooms!!! Don't know if I want to be in that kind of magnetic force though!...Comments?
 
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Shpaget

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17 teslas?
Are you sure?
1,7 would be a lot.

Anyway, it's not likely that there will ever be 0G rooms for humans. At least not the ones that use strong magnetic fields.
 
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Saiph

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yeah, 17 tesla is a ginormous amount of magnetic force,to put it politely.

But that sounds about right. I recall some researchers using a 4 tesla field to levitate a tree frog a few years back.
 
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nimbus

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Magnets are progressing fairly quick nowadays. I'm pretty sure 17T isn't nearly the most powerful available today.
 
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SpaceTas

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Earths magnetic field 0.00005 T (=0.5 Gauss), fridge magnet 0.01 T, .... http://www.coolmagnetman.com/magflux.htm
Magnetic field inside Large Hadron Collider about 8 Telsa,
Strongest artificial fields about 25 Tesla http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/AnnaWoo.shtml

The typical NMRI machine have fields 0.1 to 3 Telsa, research versions for humans up to about 9 Tesla and research on animals around 20.

Frogs etc were magnetically levitated a while back (a 16 T field was used) see this link with images and video
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/06nov_loworbit.htm

Strongest in universe Magnetars: 100,000,000,000 T :cool:
 
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