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Thursday, 8th January 2009 (1620 views)

Scientists at Harvard University have used gold to help them shed light on a physics theory that has been impossible to test until now.

The Harvard researchers, along with representatives of the National Institutes of Health, utilised tiny amounts of gold to help them examine the repulsive Casimir force, which was first theorised by Hendrick Casimir in 1948.

Until now, academics have only been able to study the attractive Casimir force rather than the repulsive one, which pushes apart materials that are separated by tiny distances of between 20 and 100 nanometres.

The team used the force to 'levitate' a gold sphere above a silica surface.

Harvard researcher Frederico Capasso said the development is of "great interest" as it can be used in "new ultra-sensitive force and torque sensors".

The work is published in the Nature journal.

Meanwhile, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a method using gold nanoparticles that it claims could be used to deliver multiple drugs to AIDS or cancer patients.

 

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