British and Dutch scientists say they have succeeded in floating a frog in air - using a magnetic field a million times stronger than that of the Earth.
And, they say, there is no reason why larger creatures, even humans, shouldn't perform the same gravity-defying feat."It's perfectly feasible if you have a large enough magnetic field," said Peter Main, professor of physics at Nottingham University, one of the British scientists who collaborated with colleagues at the University of Nijmegen to create the first levitating amphibian.
Their endeavors are reported briefly in the current issue of the British magazine New Scientist.
To hold up the frog, the field had to be a million times that of the Earth, the scientists said.
Only then was it strong enough to distort the orbits of electrons in the frog's atoms.
"If the magnetic field pushes the frog away with sufficient force you will overcome gravity and the frog will float," Main said.
The trick doesn't only work on frogs: Scientists say they have made plants, grasshoppers and fish float in the same way.
"Every ordinary object, whether it be a frog, a grasshopper or a sandwich, is magnetic, but it's very rare to see such a spectacular demonstration of this," Main said.
The scientists said their frog showed no signs of distress after floating in the air inside a magnetic cylinder.