I cannot overstate the significance of this news. French artist Nils Guadagnin has done the semi-possible: He's recreated the hoverboard from Back to the Future II. And it totally works...so long as no one stands on it.


The board floats through simple electromagnetism, but the more brilliant part of the design seems to be a laser stabilization system that, we're assuming, dynamically adjusts the magnets to keep the board afloat under duress. Just watch Nils push on the board near the end of the clip. It responds with little more than a shrug.

So if one mere artist can do this much, imagine if Apple or Microsoft dropped some R&D dollars into the cause. I'm just saying: OS XI or a hoverboard? Which offers a prouder means to drop $200? [fubiz]