Acoustic Levitation

Acoustic Levitation

Acoustic levitation may sound like a it should be an act where a magician incorporates a bit of solo guitar then makes it fly, but it is way cooler than that.

So what is acoustic levitation? It’s a way to suspend objects in the air using the pressure of intense sound waves. For example, between two highly powered speakers that are pointing at each other. More information can be found on Wikipedia at this link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_levitation

That’s right levitation does actually exist. We kind of know that already due to zero gravity and magnetic levitation devices, but this is still pretty awesome.

In this clip you can see a scientists at Argonne National Laboratory use sound waves to levitate individual droplets of solutions containing different pharmaceuticals.

It’s cool, that’s for sure, but why are they using acoustic levitation to suspend droplets of drugs in the air?

Well, other than a bit of fun, it doesn’t look as though any serious science is going on here, but on a molecular level. But that’s why looks can be deceiving, especially if what we are looking at is so micro that we can’t see it with our naked eyes. The acoustic levitation actually helps to change the crystalline structure of the drugs. This in turn allows the drugs to become more soluble. This allows the drug to be as effective at doing it’s ‘job’ at a lower dosage. You can read more about the reasons behind the experiment here: http://www.anl.gov/articles/no-magic-show-real-world-levitation-inspire-better-pharmaceuticals

Acoustic Levitation Clip In Full

Here is the full length video clip of the Argonne National Laboratories experiment in the suspension of pharmaceuticals using acoustic levitation.