NASA Levitates a Mouse With Magnetic Fields
Scientists working on behalf of NASA have successfully levitated a mouse using a strong magnetic field. I pay taxes so that stuff like this can happen. I don't hate animals. It's for understanding microgravity better, ok? The effort is part of NASA's desire to investigate how the human body can cope with long-term low gravity situations, for long stints on the ISS and future trips beyond our own moon. One way to model microgravity is to apply a strong magnetic field that opposes gravity, which repels the water in animals' bodies and levitates them slightly. Although mice might initially freak out (understandably--I bet they got some levitating mouse pee, too), they were able to adjust to a levitated lifestyle in about four hours. Scientists have previously levitated frogs and grasshoppers, but a mammal model is more useful for learning about gravity's effects on humans. I only wish...