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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: 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.