Yesterday marked the 44th anniversary of the classic science fiction TV series Star Trek. On September 8, 1966, the first episode of Captain Kirk's adventures aired, and over the decades some of the imagined future technologies in the Star Trek universe have actually come to life in some way, shape or form.
Now, it appears we may be a step closer to seeing another Star Trek tech come to life: the tractor beam. But don't expect to capture a Romulan Warbird with it any time soon.
Building a tractor beam in the lab may sound a little far-fetched, but physicists at the Australian National University have announced that they've built a device capable of transporting small glass particles -- one hundred times the size of a bacterium -- one and a half meters across a laboratory desk without touching them (pictured top). This is a huge advance considering existing "optical tweezers" can only push particles the size of a bacterium few millimeters in liquid.
How is this achieved?
In the Star Trek universe, spaceships use a "graviton beam emitter" to create a graviton interference pattern that can be manipulated to grab onto other sub-warp-speed space objects (I'll get onto warp speed later). Alas, gravitons are hypothetical quantum particles in our universe, and the Australian researchers certainly can't use them in their lab experiment.
more Is Star Trek's Tractor Beam Possible? : Discovery News
Now, it appears we may be a step closer to seeing another Star Trek tech come to life: the tractor beam. But don't expect to capture a Romulan Warbird with it any time soon.
Building a tractor beam in the lab may sound a little far-fetched, but physicists at the Australian National University have announced that they've built a device capable of transporting small glass particles -- one hundred times the size of a bacterium -- one and a half meters across a laboratory desk without touching them (pictured top). This is a huge advance considering existing "optical tweezers" can only push particles the size of a bacterium few millimeters in liquid.
How is this achieved?
In the Star Trek universe, spaceships use a "graviton beam emitter" to create a graviton interference pattern that can be manipulated to grab onto other sub-warp-speed space objects (I'll get onto warp speed later). Alas, gravitons are hypothetical quantum particles in our universe, and the Australian researchers certainly can't use them in their lab experiment.
more Is Star Trek's Tractor Beam Possible? : Discovery News