'Beam me up, Scotty!' scientists move objects

[Still Waters]

Scientists have invented a tractor beam which is able to move large objects longer distances than ever before by using a laser light.

A team of researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra have brought the art of molecular transportation, made famous by the catchphrase 'Beam me up, Scotty' from the TV series Star Trek, a fraction closer.

Using what they call tractor beams - rays of energy that can move objects - they have managed to move tiny particles up to 59 inches from one place to another.

While physicists have been able to manipulate tiny particles over minuscule distances by using lasers for years, Andrei Rhode, one of the Canberra researchers, says his team's technique can move objects one hundred times that size over a distance of almost five feet.

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[Purplos]

That is so amazing.

[UltraThunderMan]

Now we're one more step to the Galaga becoming a reality!

[farandaway]

Tractor beam tech and transporter tech are two different things people. Moving heavy objects from one place to another using lasers would be amazing. Reducing a human to their components and rematerializing them over vast distances would be even more amazing!!

[jimmylee]

I just read about a website that transports you to a random location on the planet via Google Street View. I have fun envisioning something like this if/when human teleportation becomes a reality.

http://boingboing.net/2010/09/07/globe-genie-random-t.html

[meankitty]

I can't wait for the large scale version

[booNyzarC]

I wonder if something like this would be effective at getting my tired keister from the bed to the shower on Monday mornings...

Seriously though, very cool research. Thanks for posting it up Still Waters.

[pengiun]

I know practicaly nothing about this techknowledgey but what if you used lasers just like you do in a blue ray player with four or five lasers aimed at diffrent piont along the tube in diffrent angles and have two lasers in the same direction with a small space causing a tube within a tubeone going clock wise and on anti clock wise I recken you'd get a stable tube with compartments to hold individule objects or at least a targeted system of movement.by moving the range of the lasers around the tube drawing the material forward ?!

[Druidus-Logos]

This is amazing news. Yet another win for Still Waters!

I hope this technology can be GREATLY amplified. Imagine if we could "tractor" mineral/metal asteroids into close orbit around Earth? Or asteroids with incredibly rare compounds? We need to shift our mining off planet anyway, and this would be the best way to do it. We'd build an industrial asteroid belt around our planet, and basically have workers live up there for long periods of time, coming back for breaks (like current Alberta Oil Sands workers, or other month-on-two-weeks-off workers). They'd hollow the asteroids out, collecting almost PURE metals, minerals, and compounds (they'd already be in such a pure state). Then we'd only have to shield the pure stuff with sufficient layers of rock with bubbly pockets of air inside. We'd let these processed asteroids fall to Earth, calculated to land in places of the Pacific with no risk to people. The bubbly rock would burn up partly as it fell, not the valuable product. And when it hit the Pacific, the air pockets in the remaining rock would be enough to keep this huge chunk of heavy metal floating. The key would be in calculating how much bubbly rock to use to have enough left for floatation and what trajectory to let the rock fall at so that you keep burn up to a minimum and don't release energy on scales that would cause tsunamis. It can be done. And it's likely the future of mining, which is good for Earth.

Edited September 12, 2010 by Druidus-Logos