International Day of Light Edition: Beam Me Up, Scotty: How Lasers Can Counteract Gravity

We've all wished for weightlessness at some point in our lives--that fantastical quality that powers the magic of flying broomsticks and fuels our fascination with space travel. Although we're a long way from floating down the street, physicists have developed ways to mitigate the effect of gravity, from carefully aligning sound waves to mimicking free fall in reduced-gravity aircraft. But Kosuke Shibata and his colleagues at the Gakushuin University say they've developed a new tool for levitati...