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Tractor Beams 'Pull' Tiny Particles Backward
Topic Started: Jan 21 2013, 06:48 PM (157 Views)
Michelle
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.

In space opera, it's not uncommon for the hero's ship to be snagged by a tractor beam that pulls him towards the enemy -- think of the famous scene in Star Wars where Darth Vader's Death Star captures Hans Solo's spaceship, the Millennium Falcon in an invisible grasp. Scientists have now made a real tractor beam, that while not capable of snaring spacecraft yet, is able to tug on tiny particles.

Pavel Zemanek and his colleagues at the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic built a laser that moves tiny spheres of polystyrene floating in water. Changing the way the light is polarized changes the direction the spheres move. They also found that at certain sizes, the spheres arrange themselves into neat rows as they move, bound by the light itself.

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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Wow, this is nice. I wonder whether they'll eventually be able to pull larger objects?
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Michelle
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Who knows. It's hard to wrap around it...
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