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Tractor Beams! Woot!

Started by stromboli, May 30, 2014, 05:07:53 PM

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stromboli

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-27636019

QuoteNormally the stuff of science fiction in Star Trek or Star Wars, physicists at the university used an ultrasound array to exert force on an object and pull it towards the energy source.

They say it is the first time such a beam has been used to move anything bigger than microscopic targets.

The technology could be put to use in medicine, helping to develop ultrasound-based clinical techniques.

Dundee researchers worked alongside colleagues in Southampton and Illinois on the project, the results of which have been published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.

In another sci-fi inspired project, the same team from the university's Institute for Medical Science and Technology (Imsat) created a Doctor Who-style "sonic screwdriver", also using ultrasound.

Ultrasound device
"This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a working acoustic tractor beam and the first time such a beam has been used to move anything bigger than microscopic targets," said Dr Christine Demore of Imsat.

"We were able to show that you could exert sufficient force on an object around one centimetre in size to hold or move it, by directing twin beams of energy from the ultrasound array towards the back of the object."

The team used an ultrasound device that is already clinically approved for use in MRI-guided surgery.

The team's work was carried out as part of a £3.6m programme initiated by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, combining expertise at four UK universities in Bristol, Dundee, Glasgow and Southampton with industrial firms.

Professor Sandy Cochran, of the University of Dundee, said: "Our partnership with industry has been vital to developing devices and capabilities that are delivering unprecedented sophistication in the field of ultrasound."
Wow. Star Trek and Doctor Who. Science fiction is finally becoming science.

SGOS

Meh. They probably had some telekinetic spoon bender off camera moving it with his brain while they told everyone it was done by ultrasound. :biggrin:

Shol'va

I'll be impressed when you have a, say, Galaxy-class Enterprise ship on which to strap that bad boy.

KUSA

Almost everything imagined will be invented one day.

Shol'va

That is one of the reasons I regred my own finite existence, the fact that I will not live to see those exciting days, the dawn of FTL space travel.

KUSA

Quote from: Shol'va on May 30, 2014, 08:37:38 PM
That is one of the reasons I regred my own finite existence, the fact that I will not live to see those exciting days, the dawn of FTL space travel.
Not to mention the fact that people of that time period will not age or die from most anything. They will expand out in the galaxy and have fun fun fun.

Hydra009

What if sci-fi writers see into the future and popularize the novel technologies that they saw?

*mind blown*