Wizard Science

On the movie screen, Harry Potter and Gandalf can take us to worlds where children compete on flying broomsticks and sorcerers can slip on a cloak of invisibility and disappear from sight. But are such feats of wizardry possible in the real world?

The answer, amazingly, is "yes". Scientists are hot on the trail of the wizards. Anything a sorcerer can do, a scientist can do - either now, or in the very near future. Scientists can already transmute lead into gold (the power of the Philosopher's Stone) and are close to achieving the immortality promised by the Elixir of Life. Levitation, time travel and invisibility are already being checked out in the lab.

Levitation

Levitation is at the centre of a wizard's bag of tricks, whether it's on a broomstick or a flying carpet. And science can do it as well. In a lab in Japan, a 300-pound Sumo wrestler rides his scientific flying carpet - a metal disk suspended several inches above the floor.

How does it work? It's all done with superconducting magnets. Magnets pull strongly on certain metals, such as iron, but they repel other metals such as aluminium. In everyday life it's a small effect, but with powerful enough magnets can levitate an aluminium disk with a Sumo wrestler on top.

But real-life wizards can also fly through the air without anything to ride on. Again, science has the answer. In a lab in the Netherlands, we find a frog that is floating freely in mid-air. The researchers replace the frog with a mouse; it too hovers without support.

Levitating Sumo Wrestler

Here, at the University of Nijmegen, the mega-magnets are so powerful that they are repelling the water molecules in the frog and the mouse. In theory, a powerful enough magnet would levitate a human freely into the air.

But how about travelling through the air? Scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have devised the equivalent of the flying saucer. It lifts and flies - on a beam of light. The prototype has soared 100 feet in the air: the follow-up, now being built, will fly a 2-pound satellite all the way up to Earth-orbit. A future design from the Institute involves beaming radiation downwards from a giant satellite. It will be powerful enough to lift a human, riding a flying-saucer shaped "broomstick", and let him or her fly freely through the atmosphere.

Elixir of Life

For the sorcerer, a major task is to concoct a wonderful brew: the Elixir of Life. This magic potion will banish old age, and keep you young forever.