Comments on: Anti-Gravity Machine for Levitating Fruit Flies https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/02/15/anti-gravity-machine-for-levit/ Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:10:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Stevarious https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/02/15/anti-gravity-machine-for-levit/#comment-491074 Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:10:20 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2012/02/15/anti-gravity-machine-for-levit/#comment-491074 So wait. They invented anti-gravity to test fruit fly development, and the news-worthy item is the fruit-flies??

Reminds me of this: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=71

(Yes of course I know they didn’t really invent zero gravity.)

]]> By: Calli Arcale https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/02/15/anti-gravity-machine-for-levit/#comment-491073 Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:14:45 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2012/02/15/anti-gravity-machine-for-levit/#comment-491073 It shouldn’t be too difficult to test it in actual zero-g/extra-g. The former may be prohibitively expensive for the particular research group, but then again, NASA has just opened a new office for people to apply to get experiments flown on the ISS. Part of me is concerned that the magnetism-induced simulated microgravity will not adequately replicate the true freefall environment of spaceflight. After all, the magnet only acted up on the water molecules inside of the flies. While the files are, like all living things, primarily water, they are not entirely water and I have to wonder whether this could have affected the results. They have dealt with half of that problem, by including groups exposed to similar magnetic fields which do not cause levitation, but I’d like to see it replicated in actual space. If nothing else, it’d be awesome. 😉

The extra-g situation could be tested with a centrifuge. Not sure if they’d be better off renting one of the ones built for people or building their own, smaller-scale device for the critters.

]]>