Metamaterials Can Exert a Whole New Kind of Force
Today in crazy tricks of physics, a few researchers over at the University of Southampton in the U.K. have theorized that metamaterials ought to be able to generate a wholly new kind of force--something akin to the adhesive force created by gecko toes--that can be turned on and off optically with the throwing of a switch. That force ought to be strong enough to overcome the force of Earth's gravity, opening the door to a range of potential applications--if and when the actual force is found. The fundamental force here is the same one that powers solar sails in space--the radiation pressure exerted by light on any surface it strikes. If you custom-construct a metamaterial to allow tiny oscillations of electrons--called plasmons--to exist on its surfaces, those plasmons should interact with the electrons in a nearby metal or dielectric surface. The resonant effect created in such a setup should, theoretically at...