A levitated drop of a metallic liquid inside an instrument used to study the glass transition. Electrodes above and below the sample charge its surface by induction, and it rises in the evacuated chamber, hoisted by electrostatic attraction. The sample is melted by laser and then bombarded by an intense beam of X-rays produced by a synchrotron. The pattern in which the X-rays scatter contains information about the positions and interactions of the atoms in the droplet.