Gu Jianwen, Wang Hongjiang, Luo Weiwei, Yang Yuan, Gao Junfeng, Zhang Li, Liu Xin, Wang Yuan, Li Ke, Strategic Support Force Characteristic Medical Center, Research Department, Aerospace Clinical Medicine Department, Manned Space Medical Team, Special Service Medical Department
Magnetic suspension refers to a technique that uses the force of a magnetic field to overcome gravity to levitate an object. The principle is to use the force of attraction or repulsion generated by the electromagnetic field to make the object subject to an upward or downward force in the magnetic field, so as to achieve levitation. When two magnets with the same name are close together, they repel each other, and when they are close to each other, they attract each other.
In 1922, the German engineer Hermann Kemper proposed the principle of electromagnetic levitation, and mankind began to explore the development of maglev trains. A maglev train is a type of train that relies on magnetic attraction or repulsion to reduce frictional resistance. Due to the magnetic force of the track, the train is suspended in the air while traveling and does not touch the track, so there is no frictional resistance with the track, only the resistance of the air. The maglev train can reach a maximum speed of more than 500km/h and can greatly reduce noise, and people hope that it will be another means of rapid transportation in addition to airplanes in the future.
British scientist Andre Heim did an experiment with frogs, and the result was an "anti-gravity frog".
Diamagnetism was discovered in the levitating frog experiment, which is of great significance to modern physics, materials science, biological science, etc. The experiment has aroused the curiosity of countless people, whether frogs can fly, can people too? and use the device to simulate the weightless environment and conduct experiments.
First of all, we need to introduce the concept of magnetic field, everything has electrons, and electrons have a negative charge, electrons orbit around the nucleus, and at the same time, electrons rotate to form magnetism. Any substance is magnetic.
In general, the magnetic fields of the countless tiny atoms inside the object are in different directions, and the magnetism cancels each other out, so the whole material is not magnetic to the outside.
The contact between different substances causes the movement of electrons, which produces a phenomenon of power generation and a magnetic field. The electric field and the magnetic field can be converted into each other, the magnetic field will generate the electric field, and the electric field can also generate the magnetic field.
Under the intervention of the external magnetic field, the internal magnetism of the material no longer cancels each other, and the direction of expression is the same, and the object reflects the magnetism, which is usually referred to as a strong magnetic material. The amount used to describe the strength of the magnetic field is called magnetic induction intensity, and the international unit is Tesla, the larger the Tesla, the stronger the magnetic field.
In the last century, scientists have discovered that the effect of magnetic fields on matter is directly proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, and the magnetic field of 0.1 to 1 Tesla has basically no effect on the properties of matter. Therefore, it is necessary to study the changes in the properties of matter under the action of a super-strong magnetic field of 10 to 100 Tesla. This is what is often referred to as a strong magnetic field environment.
Strong magnetic fields, ultra-high pressure, vacuum, etc. are all considered extreme conditions, and are important methods for modern physics, chemistry, and materials research.
Anti-gravity levitation frog experiment
At the University of Nijmegen, where he works in Heim, there is a superconducting magnet instrument capable of generating a magnetic field of up to 20 Tesla. Moreover, this machine can work at room temperature, unlike other superconducting magnets, which require extremely low temperature conditions.
He poured water directly into the machine, and found a miraculous scene, the water was actually suspended in the air, and the crowd instantly boiled.
This is a major scientific discovery, and it turns out that there is a weak inverse magnetic effect in water. Under the action of a super-strong magnetic field, the countermagnetism is amplified tens of thousands of times, directly overcoming the gravity of water. Later in the experiment, the frog flew because the frog contains a lot of water in its body, which can also help it overcome gravity.
The frog anti-gravity experiment was the inspiration for space station training at that time, and the space agency began to use this method to create a weightless environment, which greatly improved the efficiency of astronaut training. This also proves that if a person enters a strong magnetic field, he will be suspended in the air like a test frog. But humans are much heavier than frogs, so instruments are needed that can produce magnetic fields that are many times stronger than those in frog experiments.
Why study people into strong magnetic fields?
Many experiments have shown that the magnetic field of living organisms has an impact on life activities, and the influence is also related to the magnitude, strength, uniformity and so on of the magnetic field. Different applied magnetic fields also have different effects on different organisms. If we can use strong magnetic fields to help research the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, it is a new direction for the medical field, and the future is bright.
In 2019, an international authoritative organization reported a strong magnetic field application test, which verified the effects of different Tesla-level magnetic fields on the physiological indicators of normal mice by comparing them with tumor mice, and obtained the research data of magnetic field changes on the body of mice.
This study preliminarily obtains the limit range of strong magnetic field on biosafety, which has important reference significance for the biosafety of MRI scanners under the current high magnetic field conditions in hospitals, and also has extraordinary guiding significance for the development and expansion of other medical instruments.
The Hefei Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the latest results of strong magnetic field research on biosafety and neurobehavior, and found that specific magnetic field conditions can effectively alleviate the symptoms of depression in mice, which proposes a new treatment angle for overcoming depression, and the results are still being further demonstrated.
As Heim said, science is about exploring the unknown, and a bold frog experiment discovered diamagnetism, leading us into a whole new field of scientific research.
Why is a magnetic field capable of exerting force on frogs. It turns out that the properties of different objects in the magnetic field are different, but they can be roughly divided into three categories, one is called paramagnetic, one is called diamagnetic, and the other is called ferromagnetic. For example, iron and nickel are ferromagnetic, rare earth elements are paramagnetic, and frogs are diamagnetic. In a magnetic field, diamagnetic objects exhibit diamagnetism. When the frog is placed in a magnetic field, each atom of the frog is like a small magnetic needle, and the external magnetic field produces an upward force on these small magnetic needles, and if the strength of the magnetic field is appropriate, this force is balanced with the gravitational force of the frog, and they can hang in the air.
In fact, there are quite a few designs that incorporate the concept of "suspension", such as the "suspended bead wall clock" in the MUJI style:
OvRcharge's wireless charging device consists of a wireless charging phone case and a magnetic levitation base. The receiver mounted in the shell is able to receive power from the base, and the magnet induces magnetic force with the base to levitate:
LG's suspended bluetooth speakerPJ9,It can last for ten hours,After the power is exhausted,It will come down and charge it by itself:
Richard Clarkson's studio has a magnetic levitation cloud lamp that can be adjusted with different lighting effects, and can even mimic a thunderbolt rainbow:
In 2013, the Prague-based company Kibardindesign launched a hovering wireless mouse called "Bat", specially designed for people with carpal tunnel syndrome, by adding a magnetic ring to keep the mouse in a hovering state, with a maximum hovering height of 40 mm, and under the weight test of the hand, the hovering height is 10 mm:
With the development of manned spaceflight technology, people have a better understanding of the space environment, and the sight of astronauts floating in space also makes us feel very novel. But in addition to the space environment, there is another situation that can make living organisms weightless, and that is the environment with strong magnetic fields. A magnetic field is an invisible field formed by magnetic action, and the formation of a magnetic field generally requires some kind of interaction between magnetic objects.
In a strong magnetic field, the magnetic field exerts a force on the substance, causing the paramagnetic material to be pushed in the direction of the magnetic field, and because of the low air resistance and light weight, the material will float in the magnetic field and achieve weightlessness. In practical applications, the weightless state of paramagnetic materials can be used to separate drugs and biomolecules, and can also be applied to high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging techniques.
Diamagnetic materials in a strong magnetic field environmentThe main characteristic of diamagnetic materials is that the magnetization is negative, and the magnetic induction intensity of diamagnetic materials is even smaller than that of vacuum environments. When this material is in close proximity to other materials with magnetic fields, they will repel each other. Diamagnetic materials do not produce weightlessness in the environment of strong magnetic fields, because their atomic outer shells only have an even number of electrons, which relatively cancel out the magnetic moments of each other, so they cannot form magnetic induction.
Ferromagnetic materials in a strong magnetic field environment The atoms of ferromagnetic materials have a certain magnetic moment, that is, the magnitude and direction of the magnetic vector. This material is subjected to a force in the direction of the magnetic field in a strong magnetic field, but because it has a greater mass than paramagnetic materials, and because the unstable direction of the magnetic moment causes the material to rotate, it does not float like paramagnetic materials. SummaryThe weightlessness state in the strong magnetic field environment is not limited to the space environment, and paramagnetic materials can also achieve the weightlessness state.
Paramagnetic materials are pushed in the direction of the magnetic field in a strong magnetic field environment, and because of the low air resistance and light weight, the material will float in the magnetic field. In practical applications, the weightless state of paramagnetic materials can be used to separate drugs and biomolecules, and can also be applied to high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging techniques. Diamagnetic materials do not produce weightlessness because their atomic outer shells have only an even number of electrons, which cancel out the magnetic moments relative to each other, so they cannot form magnetic induction.
Ferromagnetic materials are subjected to forces in the direction of the magnetic field in a strong magnetic field, but because they have a greater mass than paramagnetic materials, and because the unstable direction of the magnetic moment causes the material to rotate, it does not float like paramagnetic materials. In practical applications, high magnetic field technology has been widely used in medical and scientific research. However, due to the need for further research on the impact of a strong magnetic field environment on human health, special attention needs to be paid to safety issues when using strong magnetic field technology.
In the future, it is necessary to continue to study the effects of strong magnetic field environment on human physiology and psychology. New experiments show that organisms can achieve weightlessness through magnetic levitation, a discovery that could have far-reaching implications for the biomedical field. In the world of magnetic matter, there are three different types of magnetism, which are paramagnetic, diamagnetic, and ferromagnetic. Different types of magnetic materials exhibit different magnetic characteristics, among which ferromagnetic materials are the strongest.
Currently, anti-gravity technology is limited to the suspension of tiny objects, such as anti-gravity frogs. The anti-gravity frog is to create a magnetic field of up to 16 Tesla through a superconducting magnet and "trap" the frog in it, thus realizing the levitation of the frog. However, the magnetic field required to levitate a human is hundreds of times stronger than that of an anti-gravity frog, which is unattainable with existing technology. Even if the magnetic field strength meets the requirements, there are still various technical difficulties in realizing human levitation.
First of all, humans weigh much more than frogs and require stronger magnetic force to levitate. Secondly, the levitation device requires a larger volume and stronger support to support the weight of a person. Thirdly, the suspension device needs higher precision to ensure the stability of the person, otherwise it is prone to unstable situations such as tumbling. Even if these technical difficulties are overcome, the realization of human suspension still requires a huge amount of energy. Currently, the levitation of anti-gravity frogs also requires a lot of electrical energy, and if human levitation is to be realized, a higher power supply is required.
This requires not only larger power generation equipment, but also more efficient energy conversion technologies to convert electrical energy into magnetic energy. In summary, although the anti-gravity frog has aroused people's reverie about anti-gravity technology, there are still many technical difficulties in realizing human suspension. In order to achieve anti-gravity man, it is necessary to break through many of the bottlenecks of current technologies, and more efficient energy conversion technology and stronger magnetic field manufacturing technology are needed. Only by making breakthroughs in these areas will it be possible to realize the dream of allowing people to fly freely in the air.
What will be the far-reaching impact of the development of anti-gravity technology on the future of mankind? If anti-gravity technology is truly realized, what changes will human society usher in?