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Tractor Beams Come To Life

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the da-da-da-dadada-dadada dept.

Jamie is helping bring our childhood fantasies/nightmares to life with a link that says "Andrei Rhode, a researcher involved with the project, said that existing optical tweezers are able to move particles the size of a bacterium a few millimeters in a liquid. Their new technique can move objects one hundred times that size over a distance of a meter or more."

6 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Pfft. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until the bacterium reroute the main power conduits through the deflector beam to create an inverse tachyon pulse. Then what?

    1. Re:Pfft. by Abstrackt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Until the bacterium reroute the main power conduits through the deflector beam to create an inverse tachyon pulse. Then what?

      I think you meant deflector array. Otherwise there's no way such a silly thing could happen. :p

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  2. Aren't tractor beams all about pulling? by Gotung · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure moving objects with light is cool, but this is pushing, not pulling.

    This tech will do no good in keeping those pesky rebels from escaping your space station.

    1. Re:Aren't tractor beams all about pulling? by Idiomatick · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uhhhh it works as a tractor beam just fine. FTFA:
      "The device works by shining a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles. The air surrounding the particle heats up, while the dark center of the beam stays cool. When the particle starts to drift out of the middle and into the bright laser beam, the force of heated air molecules bouncing around and hitting the particle's surface is enough to nudge it back to the center."

      So if you take two or more lasers place them on opposite sides of where you want to pull something. Point the lasers at the object. Then slowly turn the beams towards the middle. Tada. You've pulled your object to you.

      In other news, I only use repulsive forces on with hand to pick up things (other forces too minor to consider), yet some how I still manage to pull things towards myself.

  3. Re:Strangely drawn to this story... by Abstrackt · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If somebody makes a beam that can move something bigger than a bacterium around I'll be impressed whether it works in space or not.

    As for your cheerios, perhaps you should label your liquids better.

    --
    They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  4. Re:Agriculture by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Han Solo: "We're caught in a tweezer beam, it's pulling us in!"

    No, it just doesn't work. Just doesn't set up the scene correctly at all.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!