This event was recorded on July 15, 2026 at Flug Forum, produced by Aspen Center for Physics, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
Sound is more than something you hear: it’s a physical force that can push, pull, and even levitate objects. In this talk, David Goldhaber-Gordon explains how scientists and engineers use sound waves to move things too small to see with the naked eye.
He starts with something almost magical: sound waves powerful enough to float a plastic ball in mid-air, suspending it against gravity using nothing but vibrations. From there, he introduces you to the world of microfluidics, where sound is used to sort and steer living cells with remarkable precision through channels narrower than a human hair.
Finally, he explains how surface acoustic waves, vibrations that ripple across a solid surface, play an essential role in your cell phone. In David's own lab they've discovered how to use them to slide ultra-thin sheets of material along a surface. Rotating or stretching such sheets could unlock new electrical, magnetic, and optical material properties.
About David Goldhaber-Gordon
David Goldhaber-Gordon is a physicist whose research studies and manipulates how electrons organize and flow on the nanoscale. In this regime, quantum effects and electron interactions are important, confounding intuitions gleaned from larger-scale electronics. Lately David and his research group have been excited about using a new class of materials called topological insulators to build 1D wires whose resistance does not increase with length; gaining insights into complex materials by designing “quantum simulators” based on electrons in well-controlled nanostructures; and engineering electronic properties by stacking atomically-thin materials. David also explores how nanostructured materials can change our thinking on electronic devices and energy conversion technology. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been recognized with the National Academy of Science Award for Initiatives in Research, the William McMillan Award, and the George E. Valley Prize of the American Physical Society.