The Australian National University report that their Physicists have created a tractor beam on water (abstract):
Physicists at The Australian National University have created a tractor beam on water, providing a radical new technique that could confine oil spills, manipulate floating objects or explain rips at the beach.
The group, led by Professor Michael Shats, discovered they can control water flow patterns with simple wave generators, enabling them to move floating objects at will.
"We have figured out a way of creating waves that can force a floating object to move against the direction of the wave," said Dr Horst Punzmann, from the Research School of Physics and Engineering, who led the project.
"No one could have guessed this result," he said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 12 2014, @10:11AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday August 12 2014, @10:45AM
I wonder how energy efficient is this method. Truly groundbreaking (haha) but it won't replace modern hydro propulsions, would it?
If they can make it to a working oil spill control that would be awesome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 12 2014, @01:07PM
makes me wonder whether manipulating flows like that could have propulsion applications in water and even air (water and air flows have a lot of similarity)
oil spill application definitely looks like a winner. might end up like the black box (another aussie invention), with a "emergency spill containment tractor" soon to be a mandatory requirement on all oil tankers in the near future
(Score: 1) by dbe on Tuesday August 12 2014, @04:58PM
Well if you look at the tank in the video, all the waves outside of the ball area are energy and probably even move any object away from the the exiter...
So while you have a 'tractor beam' in a small space, you are actually pushing away anything else in the area, so the benefits are not obvious, but I guess it's a cool local effect...
-dbe
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday August 12 2014, @11:53AM
What are the pr0n apps? "everyone knows" pr0n drives all technological innovation on the internet.
My guess is you could do something really weird with a waterbed. Weirder than can be done now, I mean.
aside from the semi-serious pr0n comment I wonder if there's any interesting effects you can get out of the same tech while ultra-refining liquid silicon for ICs. So stick a weird transducer onto a proto-baby-boule of silicon and inject waves or whatever into it and it purifies itself pushing all the icky to the end of the boule, or something like that. Assuming they don't already do this, and the actual innovation is playing with rubber duckies in bathtubs.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Tuesday August 12 2014, @04:02PM
It's one thing to control a ping pong ball on the surface of a small tank of still water. The "wave generator" looks rather large compared to the area of the tank. Try to imagine what it would take to control something on the surface of, say, San Francisco Bay where large currents and even waves from the Golden Gate and strong winds make the surface of the water anything but still.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 13 2014, @08:01AM
Rome wasn't built in a day
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TK on Tuesday August 12 2014, @05:57PM
I really want to see this with a free-flowing oil. Or tiny plastic bits. A single ping-pong ball is a good start, but I want to see them put their money where their mouths are.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday August 12 2014, @06:06PM
They are not dealing with light, acoustic or radio waves or anything sci-fi like the title may lead you to believe.
These are plain old splashing in the water waves so there is no possible application in outer space.
And the waves look to be about 1/4 the height of the ball in the photo.
(Score: 1) by pranadevil2k on Tuesday August 12 2014, @09:38PM
I was under the impression that fluid dynamics is actually very important for aerospace applications?
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Wednesday August 13 2014, @08:57PM
Yes, very important in aerospace. Not important in outer space (where sci-fi tends to happen).