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A Tractor Beam Made of Sound

Scientists have created a sonic tractor beam . And it's not simply an amazing proof of concept: This beam pulls with a billion times more force and can tow objects a million times larger than previous schemes for tractor beams. Tractor beams are staples of science fiction, projected from the Death Star in Star Wars and the Enterprise in Star Trek . The term was coined by sci-fi author and chemical engineer E.E. "Doc" Smith in 1931. In reality, scientists have previously succeeded in using light and sound waves to push and pull objects around on the microscopic level. For example, take laser-based optical tweezers , in which light imparts a slight push or pull on an item. Since the forces involved are small, these devices are used for moving things of correspondingly tiny size, including cells. Now acoustical engineers, led by Christine Démoré and Patrick Dahl at the University of Dundee in Scotland, have developed an acoustic tractor beam that can reel in