'Beam me up, Scotty!' Breakthrough as scientists move objects 5ft using tractor lasers

Daily Mail ^ | September 9, 2010 | Richard Shears

[bill1952]

Okay, this is not transport at the atomic level.
This is movement by differential heating of localized areas.

Standard physics, but quite interesting.

[Republican Wildcat]

[dayglored]

> Okay, this is not transport at the atomic level.

Yeah, the headline of the article is misleading. "Beam me up, Scotty" referred to the Star Trek "transporter". The "tractor beam" was quite different and had entirely different application.

Oh, well, probably nobody cares, except for those of us who still value accuracy and precision in language. :)

[MrEdd]

Beat me to it.

[Slyfox]

I can move things with my hands.

[DYngbld]

Is a John Deere tractor beam?

[Gadsden1st]

Or know something about what we are talking about before we talk about it.

[bill1952]

probably nobody cares, except for those of us who still value accuracy and precision in language

Or know something about what we are talking about before we talk about it.

Thank you both. :)

[Immerito]

Thank you both for the correction. :-)

[MrEdd]

Yes.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9059800655908790019#

[usmcobra]

[DoughtyOne]

It kind of makes you wonder if this guy is the one who should be reporting things like this, if he doesn’t understand conceptually the difference between a tractor beam and a transporter.

The tractor beam would latch on to an object and pull it along. The transporter dematerialized matter and rematerialized it over distance.

If you used a tractor beam to try to move people from ship to ship, it would cause some problems. Some? Har... some fatal ones.

[sodpoodle]

Has Al Gore weighed in?

[The Comedian]

It kind of makes you wonder if this guy is the one who should be reporting things like this, if he doesn’t understand conceptually the difference between a tractor beam and a transporter.

He's a journalist, we should be thankful he didn't say "Star Track" or "Dr. Spock".

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[Personal Responsibility]

What they describe bears no relation at all to the transporter used in Star Trek.

Like all inventions, it sounds inconsequential at first. After all, who cares about a car that can go 15 MPH? A horse runs faster than that.

Very cool.

[UCANSEE2]

When it can ‘pull’ instead of ‘push’, it will be a tractor beam. This can only ‘push’.

You can ‘push’ eggs across a floor by flapping pizza boxes at them.

[Humble Servant]

” Is a John Deere tractor beam? “

Duct tape a nice hunk of 4 x 12 oak on it.

Photoshop, please...

[Humble Servant]

How big a pizza box do I need for my Sienna van? I’m thinking of mounting a spinnaker on the hood for windy days.

[bikerman]

Can we beam Obama back to Kenya??