Magnetic levitation shows promise for manufacturing

Suspending soft, sticky or fragile objects between magnets may be a way to rotate and position them in 3-D space without needing to touch them.

Manually manipulating these kinds of objects can damage them. But by suspending them between magnets, a process called magnetic levitation, scientists can control the orientation of the objects. The results, published August 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that magnetic levitation could be used in the self-assembly of materials, the assembly of robots and in manufacturing.

A video of the magnetic levitation experiment is available on YouTube.