(Phys.org)—In 2013, a group of physicists from Austria proposed the existence of a new and unusual force called the “blackbody force.” Blackbodies—objects that absorb all incoming light and therefore appear black at room temperature—have long been known to emit blackbody radiation, which repels small nearby objects such as atoms and molecules. But the physicists showed that blackbodies theoretically also exert an attractive force on these objects. They called this force the “blackbody force,” and showed that it can be stronger than blackbody radiation, and—for very small particles—even stronger than gravity.