A pair of researchers, one with the Public University of Navarre, the other with the University of Bristol, has developed a system of holographic acoustic tweezers that can be used to manipulate multiple objects simultaneously in 3-D space. Asier Marzo and Bruce Drinkwater describe their tweezers and possible uses for them in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Holographic laser tweezers are familiar to researchers, but they can only be used to move around micro-scale objects. In this new effort, Marzo and Drinkwater take the idea of holographic tweezers into the realm of sound and in so doing have created a system capable of manipulating a host of larger objects simultaneously.
The article shows various macro-scale objects the researchers have been able to manipulate. They suggest the technology can be refined to perform non-invasive surgery, among other applications.
Sonic screwdrivers, here we come?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @06:41PM (5 children)
The article shows various macro-scale objects the researchers have been able to manipulate. They suggest the technology can be refined to perform non-invasive surgery, among other applications.
I wonder if that or a similar approach is behind the mysterious "sonic weapon" that's been used to attack US and Canadian embassies, leaving civil servants with health problems, potential brain damage, etc.
Maybe we do go extinct with a bang, or at least a loud acoustic noise, after all. Just scale it up to a global level, throw the switch, and the bane of humanity is wiped from the Earth forever. Sucks for us humans, but is probably a benefit to everything else living in this world.
Bye, and thanks for all the fish!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday December 19 2018, @06:53PM
You're assuming, that same acoustic signal wouldn't harm most other living things in the world. That's unlikely, especially in the case of Mammals.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:37PM (2 children)
Ah yes, the old "we want to make a military attack on another country, but rather than conventional weapons, poisonings, or even harassment, let's invent a secret super-weapon that mildly inconveniences a few low-level clerks." gambit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:44PM (1 child)
Yeah probably not that level of action, but I read a book from a VA doctor from the 60s/70s and he brought up the US standard for "safe" levels of microwave radiation. Apparently the US set a level many times higher than other countries and gave some Russian scientists a little sass about it, so the Russians set up a microwave emitter to irradiate their offices just below the US safety level. Apparently they quickly installed some shielding but kept the "safe" level where it was.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 20 2018, @02:30AM
You can be sure that the Soviets didn't do that because of sass to lowly scientists. They never cared. Nor do they care about microwave safety levels since nobody important was irradiated.
It was probably rather to power or illuminate espionage equipment in said embassy. For example, one could measure the reflection of the microwaves off a metal structural plate or other relatively reflective object and pick up any sounds or other vibrations affecting the object.
Why the "scare quotes" around "safe"?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday December 20 2018, @02:18AM
That's a particularly good reason to invest in space. To get away from the extinctionist crazies on Earth and drastically reduce the perceived benefits of mass killing humanity on Earth. I think they'd cool down a lot, if they realized that any effort to cleanse Earth of the human vermin would just be giving Earth to someone of vastly different ideology like Elon Musk.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday December 19 2018, @09:47PM
(disclaimer: I RTFA - the original one [pnas.org] is Open Acess)
1. No info on the sonic pressures involved - they only mention that they manipulated spheres of expanded polystyrene and for manipulating 12 of them they used 9.5W of power. Around 20 (the max limit they achieved without experiencing a significant number of undesirable focii) they needed to scale the power to 57W.
More on this later
2. Unlike the optical analogs, where the particles are trapped in maxima, the acoustic trap uses nodes (i.e. oscillation minima) to trap the particles.
Which means, to manipulate an object inside one's body one will need to create a node surrounded by maxima. How strong the "tweezers" need to be? Depends on what you want with the "suspended" object - if you want to move it, the "depth" of the potential energy will need to be large enough to overcome the resistance of the medium.
Which may mean a maxima/minimum differential pressure large enough to liquefy the surrounding biological tissue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0