Aussie Scientists Invent Tractor Beam

Aussie Scientists Invent Tractor Beam - Andrei Rhode's Team Realizes Star Trek Staple
September 09, 2010 10:34 AM EDT (Updated: September 09, 2010 10:42 AM EDT)
views: 5096 | comments: 4
A research team at Australian National University has announced a device that can move small particles a meter and a half using only the power of light. In short, a tractor beam.

Andrei Rhode, one of the researchers on the project, noted that while others have created optical tweezers that can move bacterium-sized particles in liquid a few millimeters, his tractor beam can move objects over one hundred times the size of a bacterium over far greater relative distances.


How does Andrei Rhode's tractor beam work?

The tractor beam works by shining a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles. The laser heats up the surrounding air while whatever's at the center of the beam stays cool. The air temperature differences caused by the laser are enough to keep the particles inside the center of the beam when they start to drift out.

A secondary, smaller amount of laser light enters the middle part of the hollow beam to heat the air on one side of the particle and move it around. If a second laser is aimed at the opposite side of the hollow tractor laser, the speed and direction of the particles can be changed depending on the beams' brightness settings.

How close is that tractor beam to what we saw on Star Trek?

Since Australian National University's tractor beam requires air to work, it will not function in space. However, that doesn't mean it's useless.

Andrei Rhode pointed out that their method could be used to move objects as far as 10 meters. While that doesn't seem much longer, even 1.5 meters is more than long enough to expand on the laser tweezer concept. The tractor beam Rhode's team developed could be used to transport dangerous substances and microbes, sample taking, and biomedical research.

FOXNews quoted David McGloin, a physicist at the University of Dundee, Scotland, saying that the tractor beams could be used to carry chemical delivery agents, but that more research would be necessary to see if the heat generated by the tractor beams would affect the items in the glass spheres.

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978506944

 

Beam me up, Scotty.

 

i was about to comment Craig Ferguson

 

What? That's where I first heard the news.


Craig's response: "Farmers all across America are outraged."

Farmer voice: "No one's gonna buy American made tractors."

:rofl:

 

Tractors are fine but it's the rope or chain that's the beam.

 

Is it pulling or pushing?

 

This could change tractor pulls forever

 

Agh, pulling. That's incredible.

 

I meant 'tractor pulls', where they attach a tractor to something heavy and make it pull it and the audience cheers. I'm not sure if the Aussie tractor beam pulls pr pushes. I don't think the article said.

 

That sucks

 

Yea, it's pretty moving though to think how far we've come in fifty years.

 

If it sucks it can push AND pull. Wow!

I know. I was joking. Man, I need to improve my jokes.

 

Yea, sometimes they blow

 

All kidding aside?

 

I'm sure it moves. It's a dismal failure if it doesn't. Epic fail, infact.

 

You tell me.

 

Is that right?

 

That's pushing, right?

 

lol. I believe it is. Well, according to physics at least that means your jokes don't suck.

 

Thanks physics.