BiotechMashup

Tractor beams -- the ability to trap and move objects using laser light -- are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tractor beams -- the ability to trap and move objects using laser light -- are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis.

The steady improvement in speed and power of modern electronics may soon hit the brakes unless new ways are found to pack more structures into microscopic spaces. To do this, researchers are looking into precisely steering, in real time, a curve-shaped beam of weird "virtual particles" known as surface plasmons. This technique opens the possibility of even smaller, faster communications systems and optoelectronic devices.

Scientists have for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos -- nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, "Neutrino."

(Georgia Institute of Technology Research News) Researchers can now measure a laser's power & spatial energy distribution at once by directing the beam onto a reusable glass target board GTRI designed. The new system will accelerate high-energy laser development and reduce the time required to make them operational for national security purposes.

Researchers in Japan have successfully produced a beam of X-ray laser light with a wavelength of 1.2 Angstroms, the shortest ever measured. This record-breaking light opens a window into the structure of atoms and molecules at a level of detail never seen before.

Physicists have created a tiny "electron superhighway" that could one day be useful for building a quantum computer -- a new type of computer that will use quantum particles in place of the digital transistors found in today's microchips. Researchers now describe how to make a "topological insulator," a much-sought device that could help physicists create elusive pairs of quantum particles that are particularly useful for storing information.

An international team of physicists has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can now accelerate particles to extremely high velocities that would otherwise only be possible using large accelerator facilities. Physicists around the world are examining laser particle acceleration and laser produced radiation for potential future uses in cancer treatment.

With a bit of leverage, researchers have used a very tiny beam of light with as little as 1 milliwatt of power to move a silicon structure up to 12 nanometers. That's enough to completely switch the optical properties of the structure from opaque to transparent.