Surely, you’ve seen levitation tricks before, but not like this. Maybe you recall those magnetic spinning tops, or the simple setup of a ball being held aloft on a column of air. This is different. Using sound waves, scientists are able to not only levitate small objects (in this case, foam pellets), but control them as well.

The ultrasound waves used in the video are sounds with a frequency too high to be detected by human ears, and the effect demonstrated in the above video has been theorized about since at least the 1930s, according to the science journal Nature. Unfortunately, you won’t see humans levitated in this manner anytime soon: The effect works best when the height of the sound wave is more or less equal to the height of the object being levitated.

However, the researchers note that the technology could have useful applications in outer space. For instance, the technique could prove helpful in manipulating objects under microgravity.

This is not the first time acoustic levitation of this sort has been demonstrated. Tech site The Verge notes that in 2006 Chinese scientists managed to suspend small animals in midair using ultrasound.

A tiny fish, a ladybug and an ant were amongst the animals successfully floated, with the researchers reporting that the animals were confused by their new environment, but not harmed. The fish showed a loss in “vitality,” but that’s only because researchers attempted to keep it wet using a syringe.

Those wacky scientists.