Researchers Create Real Tractor Beams

Gadgetank writes "Researchers out of the Australian National University have created a device, working in conjunction with other necessary devices, that can literally move small particles with light. And only light. The way it works is by shining a hollow laser beam around some tiny glass particles. The researchers heat the air around the particles, and therefore cause the dark center of the beam to remain cool."

Comments

Right, this seems as good a time as any

[Trogre]

What's happened to the Slashdot tagging system? Why can't I click the little triangle to add new tags to an article anymore? Are only editors allowed to tag articles these days?

And why the hell hasn't anyone marked this one 'dupe'?

When tags were first introduced I saw a massive drop in the rate of duplicate articles that made it past the firehose (was it even called 'firehose' back then? I don't remember)

re: dupes

[sootman]

You know what though? Slashdot has gotten really good about dupes. Remember how it was kind of a running joke, and then for a while a couple years ago it got really bad? Now, this one is, I think, the second or third dupe I've seen in a year. Congrats to the staff for fixing at least one part of our beloved Slashdot.

Now if you'l excuse me, I'm off to copy some +5 comments from yesterday's thread. :-)