Working Tractor Beam Can Move Objects 5 Feet With Just Light
Have you ever lazily wished you could just use a tractor beam to grab that out-of-reach object? Apparently, you can. Using only light, Australian researchers say they are able to move small particles almost five feet through the air. It's more than 100 times the distance achieved by existing optical "tweezers," the researchers say. Not quite a simple grabby tractor beam, the new system works by shining a hollow laser beam at an object and taking advantage of air-temperature differences to move it around. Related ArticlesComing Generation of Lasers May Be the Most Powerful Lasers That Will Ever LaseIn Demonstration, Laser-Powered UAV Charged From the Ground Stays Aloft For HoursVideo: Long-Awaited Mosquito-Killing Laser in ActionTagsScience, Rebecca Boyle, lasers, light, light particles, physics, teleportation, tractor beamsMoving objects with powerful light is not new - researchers have long been using optical tweezers to pluck bacteria-sized particles and move them a few millimeters. The U.S....