Quantum Locking - now for racing purposes!

[andrewducker]

Remember this awesome demo of what you can do with some liquid nitrogen, quantum superconductors and a handy magnetic field?

Now, imagine you spent your Christmas break setting up the lab so that you could use that effect to play classic Playstation game WipeOut?

Magnets, how do _they_ work, eh?

(via my brother Mike. Who really should make it his New Year resolution to post more.)

Comments

[tysolna]

My future, it is here.

[martling.livejournal.com]

Here come the flying levitating cars!

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Ridiculously awesome on all counts.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

It's not real. Just a marketing campaign.

[andrewducker]

What for? Got a link to some info?

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Wipeout 2048 for PS Vita is due to release soon - it ses Augmented Reality.

Japan Institute of Science and Technology doesn't exist, or at least not turning up in Google. Also would Japanese students have english all over their video? The massive name check in the midde of the board is kind of a give away too. Reeks of CGI and quality far too professionally shot and produced for geeks in a lab! I smell a mighty rat.

[andrewducker]

Dammit, that makes a lot of sense!

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

This MeFi thread also points to a fake, unfortunately. I've seen a demonstration of quantum levitation, and it is awesome, but the amount of liquid nitrogen you needed to get it down to temperature makes me suspicious about the cars, especially as their liquid nitrogen tank looks false. If it's a tank of liquid nitrogen that small, it must be mostly insulation to keep a tiny bit liquid.

[andrewducker]

The stuff in the first video looks awesome, and I was hoping that the second video was a refinement of it. But it does look too clean and neat, particularly to have been hacked together.

And as poisonduk points out, the research institute they claim to be part of doesn't exist...

[andrewducker]

Also, I love the general agreement that you _could_ do something like that, but it would cost a fortune and be bulkier than we're seeing.