Use light to pull objects

Experts of the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) has successfully invented a miniaturized version of the "drag beam" previously only present in sci-fi movies, like Star Trek.

In the Star Trek movie, the Enterprise ships a beam of light to pull other ships and large objects towards their ships.

An Enterprise ship scene uses a smaller towing beam in Star Trek - (Photo: Star Trek)

The device created by Scottish experts is capable of pulling tiny particles of particles suspended in water and dragging towards the beam of light, instead of pushing them away as usual, according to the newspaper. Nature Photonics report.

Unfortunately, the researchers say, there is still no way to create larger devices, due to the need for a powerful laser source.'Drag beams' can only move molecules about 5 microns in diameter.

The lead researcher, Dr. Tomas Cizmar, explained that the ability to pull objects of light beams is based on the principle of converting momentum between photons (ie light molecules) and objects.

It is inevitable that energy conversion will happen at the same time. Imagine you want to use a beam to pull a football field, the total conversion energy will be extremely large, and it can burn the field immediately, according to Dr. Cizmar.