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Holographic Laser Tweezers To Manipulate Cells

Posted by timothy on from the to-fit-on-the-head-of-mutant-minnows dept.

SteamyMobile writes "How do you move things as small as single cells? Using tweezers, of course, but not just any tweezers. These tweezers must be holographic laser tweezers, developed at the University of Glasgow and Oxford University. These tweezers use a hologram to structure a light source in such a way as to exert just enough gentle pressure to move a cell. First, they use light to move water, and now this. I can think of some applications, too."

2 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. The paper. by jabberjaw · · Score: 4, Informative

    The paper can be found at Optics Express. One can also find video of the tweezers in action.

  2. And the website. by jabberjaw · · Score: 4, Informative

    Further digging led me to theUniversity of Glasgow's Optics Groupd where there is a great deal of information on their project page about optical tweezers. As an aside, I don't suppose anyone has the time to elaborate on the Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm?