9/11 and the power of ultrasound! (just connect the dots)
Star Trek edges closer to reality: Tractor beam moves object using nothing but the power of ultrasound.
Dr Demore said: ‘The concept has been there for a long time.”
- The tractor beam was able to move a hollow triangular object forward 1cm
- This was done with a device that exerted pressure using sound waves
- Device could have applications in treating cancer and targeted drug delivery
- The beam pulls with a billion times more force and can tow objects a million times larger than previous designs for tractor beams
Whenever a star ship was in distress, the Star Trek Enterprise could activate its tractor beam and drag the vessel to safety.
And now, the technology is gradually moving out of the realm of science fiction and into reality.
Scottish scientists claim to have created the most powerful version of a tractor beam to date using the power of sound.
The device is a square array of a thousand ultrasound emitters placed at the bottom of a water-filled chamber. In their experiments, researchers used the array to pull in hollow triangular objects. To pull the objects, the array generates low-pressure at front of the targets. Sound waves ricochet off the rear part of object