In case you didn’t notice, the motorboard glides over a GOD DAMN LOG. A LOG! And you can sit and carve on the thing like it was a little snowboard. I have no idea when this is coming out, if ever: these Aussies are trying to raise capital for their project. But I support the Powerboard in spirit, even if my wallet can’t. [Scarpar via Engadget]

It’s pretty straightforward, really. You just need a leaf blower, a tarp and a board. It takes some work, but it looks pretty doable. And the results look totally awesome. You might not be able to outrun Biff and his gang, but you’d still impress everyone hanging out in front of the old clock tower. I want one. [Jason Bradbury, Wonder How To via The Daily What]

957. Michael J. Fox “Marty Mcfly” hero Mattel hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II & Part III. (Universal Pictures, 1989, 1990) This is one of the hero Mattel Hoverboards used by Michael J. Fox in his most famous role as “Marty McFly” in the Robert Zemeckis classic 80s trilogy, Back to the Future. Two styles of Hoverboard were made for and employed in the film – lightweight boards of styrofoam construction and thick and durable wood-based props – this example is the latter, and is recognised as the best example of all wood Hoverboards to have survived the rigors of filming. The illusion of Michael J. Fox as “Marty McFly” hovering through the air was achieved with practical effects, with actors in rigged harnesses being “flown” via cranes, with special effects taking care of the rest.

Of the two styles of props used in the film, the styrofoam examples in collections today have not held up as well, given the more fragile nature of the material and the abuse they endured in production. Few wood examples have survived, and the collector who obtained this specimen from the prop master chose this for his personal collection as the premiere example of those preserved following the film. It is in used but outstanding condition, and is very rare in that it is entirely complete and intact. Given the wood build and use of metal components, it looks and feels like a “real” prop. This piece has the complete fully functional and rear ballbearing-mounted footpad that rotates 360 degrees, as well as the bottom “magnet plates”. Of the two styles of stickers used for the effects, this prop has the “photoboard”-style sticker affixed. In addition, there is other textured styling and hand painting. This Hoverboard also features the hole in the top, representing where the handlebars were that “Marty” pulled off after borrowing the “toy” from the little girl in the film. $30000 – $50000

Seriously, I know Back to Future forwards and backwards after seeing it too many times to count, but paying $30,000 to $50,000 for this, which is not even one of a kind? I mean, if it were Marilyn Monroe’s used underpants I would understand, but a piece of wood that doesn’t fly? What kind of crazy-bordering-the-retarded fanboy would actually waste such an stupidly high amount of money in a pink non-flying Mattel hoverboard?

OK, I admit it. I don’t have the money. [eBay Live Auctions -- Thanks Michael]

The only catch? The superconductor needs to be at a temperature below -184 degrees Celcius. That means that this tech will be used to keep spacecraft tethered together without touching rather than to build a real model of Luke’s speeder from Star Wars. Pity. So wait, how exactly is this going to work?

Magnetic pinning works by placing two modules — one with an unpowered, but supercooled, superconductor and the other with an ordinary permanent magnet — near each other. The permanent magnet induces currents in the superconductor that are persistent and exactly opposite to the fields generated by the magnet. By strategically placing the magnets and superconductors, the orientation of both modules can be pinned at any orientation. In essence, one “grips” the other with an invisible magnetic glove, and will resist any movement. Even in the presence of outside forces, magnetic pinning will hold the two modules in place. The effect is so intense that is very difficult to move them, even when physically pushed from the outside. According to Cornell, it is almost impossible to force the modules to touch one another, making the technique a fail-safe system for preventing spacecraft modules from colliding with each other.

OK, well that is awesome. Now if they could only figure out a way to get this working at room temperature we’d officially be living in the awesome version of the future we all dreamed about when we were 11. Let’s make this happen, scientists! [EE Times via New Launches]

The Hoverboard (second picture) will not only keep you aloft a sweet three inches above the ground it will also burn a $9000 hole in your face, or anywhere else you keep your cash. The board can support a 250lb fat ass, up to a maximum speed of 20mph. Control is handled via a wired remote that handles rudder position, (for turning), and speed, (for fun).

An acceptable alternative, the Airboard will make you look like you are cruising on a vehicle from Wipeout. Unlike the lawnmower looking Hoverboard, general control here is achieved by weight transfer. Leaning back will make you go faster, whilst starting, stopping and turning are all also managed by throwing your mass about appropriately, much like on a skateboard. Purchase information is only available by contacting the manufacturer directly, at alura75413@aol.com.

While Adam waits for the real deal, we are hoping for a couple of review units, so we can sneak off to the half-pipe and make some completely ill movies of us pulling PHAT air board manoeuvres. We will then upload the said video to YouTube with that wicked Skater8oi track by Avril Lavigne. Adam will surly feel left out and cry like a sissy and we will look so enviably cool. Who are we kidding? Adam looks cooler standing still in a stripy t-shirt then we ever could flying about. Gosh, we do miss him on the weekend *sniff*. [Airboard, Hoverboard via Cool Hunting]

That’s because a group of physicists claim to have figured out how to reverse what’s known as the Casimir force, causing objects to repel from each other rather than be attracted. What’s that mean? Hoverboards, bro. So what is this wacky Casimir force?

The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a “dry glue” effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling.

I… see. Whatever, all that matters is that this could allow for levitation, which is absolutely bananas. [Telegraph]

CATEGORIES: Gadgets, hoverboards, Jaws 19 coming soon, Science