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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."

3 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.