more Star Trek related Science - Tractor beams!

[Matt²]

FOXNews.com - Scientists Invent a Tractor Beam

 

[Disconnected]

pssh people have been telling me for years I have my own orbit.

interesting progress in this field though I must say.

 

[Hylian]

Yet more proof that the science fiction of our child hoods shapes the technology of the future

 

[Jay]

:sowsuser:

Wow, that's awesome.

 

[Frank]

Star Trek is pretty much responsible for like 90% of technological advances I am convinced.

 

[Matt²]

Not exactly like a tractor beam, though...based on the description and the photo in the artcile, you need optics on both sides of the object to reflect beams and give you control over how the object moves. We're still working on a repellent force principle here, rather than a true tractor beam, which works on some kind of attractive force principle.

ssssshhh!! Don't ruin our nerd glee!

 

[North_Ranger]

Heh... Whenever I read that word, I think of a beam that turns things into tractors.

What? I'm from the countryside.

 

[Matt²]

Heh... Whenever I read that word, I think of a beam that turns things into tractors.

What? I'm from the countryside.

[/QUOTE]

LOL! .. I was imagining something more akin of the tractor plowing the field with a tractor beam.

 

[Matt²]

best I could do with MS Paint

ROFL.. I was thinking BEHIND the tractor, as usual (for farming).. now that I think of it, TNG era ships tow/repel from in front when they're trying to keep something away or from escaping... but when they're actually TOWING, then they do actually lug it behind them.

 

[fade]

I'm more fascinated by the channel that carries Glen Beck reporting science.

 

[tegid]

We already got optical tweezers!