Now you can join the ranks of the X-men, seeing they’ll welcome someone who can tally Magneto’s powers of manipulating electromagnetic fields.

Physicists have created incredible levitation effects by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick to together (from Spiderman to Magneto!).

The Casimir force, a consequence of quantum mechanics, is due to neither electrical charge nor gravity but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the empty space between objects.

Using a special lens, the physicists engineer the Casimir force to repel, rather than attract.

Levitating humans are not quite on the agenda yet. For now they are concentrating on light weight bodies used in micro or nano machines.

Their next step: to achieve invisibility by making light waves flow around an object.

Fun, fun fun!

• Read the full article
• A force from nothing : Casimir Force 
• Did Einstein just know everything? Read about Max Planck, Einstein and finally Hendrik Casimir’s theories on electromagnetic fields way back when.
• You’ve seen David Blaine levitate. Now you do it.
• The Maglev trains and rails are fitted with electromagnets that generate two opposing magnetic fields. These two opposing fields keep the train floating a few centimetres above the track. Read more and then watch the video to see the train in action.
• You can use sound to suspend matter in fluid. Read more about acoustic levitation.
• Even frogs have joined the fun. Read about floating frogs (and no, we didn’t just send them into space and took a video)