Scientists in Scotland Have Created a Working Tractor Beam

This is way cool, ATS!!! Scientists in Scotland have created a Tractor Beam! What's probably the most surprising is that Scientists use "Sound" not Light to achieve the "pull" effect of the Tractor Beam.

The Dundee tractor beam is not entirely dissimilar from those in “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” in that it draws an object toward it without making physical contact. The device works by taking advantage of an acoustic wave’s natural push effect, called radiation pressure. (Photons also exert radiation pressure, which is part of the reason comet tails always point away from the sun.) What the Dundee team was able to demonstrate was an example of negative radiation pressure, otherwise known as pull. According to Christine Démoré, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Medical Science and Technology, at Dundee, and a co-author of the paper, one of the team’s main reasons for staging the experiment was to show how easily it could be done. “It’s a relatively simple concept, but it’s just obscured by complex math,” she told me. “By shaping a beam of energy so that it goes around an object in some way, hitting it in the back, it’s possible to then pull the object instead of push it.”

Wow!............just WOW!! Think of the implications here.....think of what this will do for the tow industry....What does ATS say?

www.newyorker.com...

Very cool find....I'd day it's about time we start getting Sci Fi tech.... on another note..The tow industry ! We get freakin tractor beams and you wonder about the tow industry....lol

I don't think it will ever replace a tow rope or chain. Not even a wrecker for pulling your car out of a ditch.

It could possibly be used in space, but then again, does sound travel in space? Would this even work out there?

It could possibly be used for aligning things on a small scale but what effect would it have on our physiology and how many jobs for humans will it eliminate. Is it feasible in our economy to develop this technology, we would be fatter then hell if we could remain seated and still get our beer and chips

a reply to: lostbook

Should make Asteroid/Comet capturing-redirecting more possible. Very nice advancement

So the Scots have created a working tractor beam, eh?

Only a matter of time before someone in their facility, possibly a visiting scientist, says "beam me up, Scotty."

originally posted by: rickymouse

It could possibly be used in space, but then again, does sound travel in space? Would this even work out there?

Subjectively thinking if the waves come in contact with the object of interest, there should be some form of attraction/pull still 1 thinks. Good question rickymouse

a reply to: lostbook

Great discovery!!!

We're only a few pulls away from "Beam me up,Scotty."



I think this technology could also be used for many other things.

Nice share.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

This isn't new, I have three lights on my tractor that emit beams and it pulls a lot of stuff.

originally posted by: Ophiuchus 13

originally posted by: rickymouse

It could possibly be used in space, but then again, does sound travel in space? Would this even work out there?

Subjectively thinking if the waves come in contact with the object of interest, there should be some form of attraction/pull still 1 thinks. Good question rickymouse

If interstellar space is indeed a vacuum, then it seems sound waves cannot travel through it (except radio waves, which are a form of electromagnetic radiation), so back to a light or magnetic tractor beam drawing board?

Sound waves can travel only through matter. Since there's almost no matter in interstellar space, sound can't travel through it. The distance between particles is so great that they would never collide with each other. Even if you could get a front seat for the explosion of the Death Star, you wouldn't hear anything at all.

science.howstuffworks.com...

Unless, of course, they combine this technology with new light to matter technology so that the sound has a medium in which to travel.(?)

www.theregister.co.uk...

Pretty amazing. Hopefully they'll eventually post a video so we can see it in action. We have tractor beams in the works along with a holodeck, 3-D printing is the closest analog we have for replicators but it's coming along, and we have computer tablets, which as far as I can tell are more advanced than the Star Trek pads. Now we just need to get the space program beyond its infancy, and then bam... United Federation of Planets here we come.

Beyond that they are using acoustic wave technology, which means maybe in several hundred years we to can have Sonic Screwdrivers like the Doctor.

a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe there is is a medium in which sound can travel in space. Sound travels by bumping atoms together to create the wave. If there are no atoms of air, water, or matter for for the sound to travel though (e.g the vacuum of space) the sound will not go anywhere.

*edit*

Whoops, looks like someone beat me to it. But I was right, so there's always that.

Cool article though, even though I do believe this has been talked about here on ATS before.

originally posted by: andr3w68
a reply to: Ophiuchus 13

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe there is is a medium in which sound can travel in space. Sound travels by bumping atoms together to create the wave. If there are no atoms of air, water, or matter for for the sound to travel though (e.g the vacuum of space) the sound will not go anywhere.

*edit*

Whoops, looks like someone beat me to it. But I was right, so there's always that.

Cool article though, even though I do believe this has been talked about here on ATS before.

You could use magnetic fields to transmit sound between two spacecraft. That's how the loudspeaker works on Earth. There is a permanent electromagnet that is surrounded by a coil of wire. When voltage is applied to the wire, the magnet moves back and forth which in turns moves the paper cone, which then causes air to move.

Unfortunately, the strength of a magnetic field decreases according to distance cubed, so you would need a really strong magnet for long distances, but it is possible to shape a magnetic field by surrounding the source with a magnetic fields of opposite polarity in such a way that it is squashed one way and stretched the other.

nev

So like - I'm my phone and I don't have links handy

Didn't the ancient Egyptians do something similar using low tech techniques

I vaguely remember reading a book when I was younger indicating that scientists were busy trying to replicate some of the written accounts of the builders and that it was probably bunk. Now we know it isn't bunk?

a reply to: Crakeur

The original Star Trek, where Chief Engineer Scott was a cast member, did not use tractor beams.

The technology was not introduced until Star Trek TNG.

Boom! Nerd owned!

a reply to: InTheLight
Perhaps not. Maybe investigating a high density particle beam as a carrier for the sound? I don't think you would want to accelerate the particles too much or the sound would not propagate. This could be useful for short distance work.

Well....
How much power does it use for how much force it can produce .....that's the twenty dollar question....

Even if limited to use in air, a tractor beam has potential uses.

The original "Beam Me Up" - but no Scotty!

Very awesome! It's not space-worthy, but this still could be incredibly useful. Imagine how easy moving would be if this was available for moving heavy furniture? Or for moving heavy industrial stuff?

originally posted by: projectvxn
a reply to: Crakeur

The original Star Trek, where Chief Engineer Scott was a cast member, did not use tractor beams.

The technology was not introduced until Star Trek TNG.

Boom! Nerd owned!

Technically incorrect. The Fesarius tractored Kirk's Enterprise in The Corbomite Maneuver.

/Trekkie Pwnage