Theoretical physicists at the University of St Andrews have created `incredible levitation effects' by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together by quantum force.  By reversing this phenomenon, known as `Casimir force', the scientists hope to solve the problem of tiny objects sticking together in existing novel nanomachines.

Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin believe that they can engineer the Casimir force of quantum physics to cause an object to repel rather than attract another in a vacuum.  "Instead of sticking together, parts of micromachinery would levitate," explains Leonhardt.

"The Casimir force is the ultimate cause of friction in the nano-world, in particular in some microelectromechanical systems. Such systems already play an important role - for example tiny mechanical devices which triggers a car airbag to inflate or those which power tiny `lab on chip' devices used for drugs testing or chemical analysis.  Micro or nano machines could run smoother and with less or no friction at all if one can manipulate the force," he said. 

While many may be thinking the next step is human levitation, the scientists say they are a long way off developing the technology for this, though they admit it is possible in principle for humans to levitate.

"At the moment, in practice it is only going to be possible for micro-objects with the current technology, since this quantum force is small and acts only at short ranges. For now, human levitation remains the subject of cartoons, fairytales and tales of the paranormal," explained Professor Leonhardt.

The research is due to be published in the August edition of the New Journal of Physics.