Levitation on Campus

Mr. Youngs seemed to mean it, and he seemed to be right.  A little silver cube, emitting vapors, was flying above his hand, no strings attached.

On the steps to the Bubble, Christian Youngs gave one of his trademark impassioned presentations – this time it was Quantum Levitation, using liquid nitrogen. Students and teachers crammed around and craned their necks to see the liquid-nitrogen-drenched super-conductor hover over magnets.

Most of us, versed in Terminator lore, know liquid nitrogen as the only way to defeat (albeit temporarily) a T-1000. And that was the draw. But turns out, the particular set-up demonstrated by Mr. Youngs is the closest we may ever get to a perpetuum mobile.

"Any sufficiently advanced science can be indistinguishable from magic," Mr. Youngs said. He meant it, and he was right.