ASGSB 1999 Annual Meeting Abstracts

MAGNETIC LEVITATION FOR GENERATING LOW GRAVITY ENVIRONMENTS. M. W. Meisel¹, J.S. Brooks², and R.J. Ferl³.  ¹Dept of Physics and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL; ²Dept of Physics and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL; ³Dept of Horticultural Sciences and the Biotechnology Program, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Magnetic levitation techniques are now an established means of achieving low gravity environments [1-4].  Our work has involved the study of Arabidopsis thaliana equipped with a stress responsive reporter gene [3] and the self-assembly of macroscopic, diamagnetic objects [4].  We will discuss the details of applying these techniques to a variety of applications (including crystal growth) that require a long-term Earth-based low gravity environment.

(Research sponsored, in part, by the NSF through support of the NHMFL and NASA (NAG 10-0145) grant to RJF.

[1] A. Geim, Physics Today 51, No. 9 (Sept.), 36 (1998), and ibid., No. 12 (Dec.), 11 (1998).

[2] M. V. Berry and A. K. Geim, Euro. Jour. Phys. 18, 307 (1997).

[3] T. F. Stalcup et al., in press. (preprint available at http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~meisel/arabexp.htm )

[4] J. S. Brooks et al., to be published. (videos available at http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/levitation/index.html )

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