Scientists levitate tiny objects using sound

A team of scientists have used sound waves to levitate tiny objects without a wizard or wand in sight.

The breakthrough, published today in Nature Communications, could lead to developments in areas as diverse as high-powered “tractor beams”; or manipulating drug delivery in the human body.

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“managed to move the tiny objects – less than one millimetre in size – using a single-sided array of loudspeakers.”

In 2-D, such as on a table top, this is exceedingly easy. In 3-D the principle of one method is simple enough, set up a standing wave with a node at one point, any object will move towards the node, and by slowly varying the position of the node the object will be moved along with it. That’s not necessarily the only way to do it, or the way that they choose to do it.

Moving nodes around within a solid body of variable density, such as a human being, would be a pain.