Surely even if you have not seen "Star Wars", then you know that in various science fiction books there is a special attracting beam that can immobilize a spaceship (or a person) and move it wherever you want. Like any technology described by science fiction writers, this one had a completely logical rationale and recently a group of researchers from the University of Adelaide created a similar attractive beam. True, they will not be able to stop the starships yet.
Naturally, the technology has a purely scientific application and at the moment it is used in order to attract atoms and prevent them from moving. According to the editors of the journal Physical Review Applied, scientists led by Dr. Philip Light and graduate student Ashby Hilton, who themselves describe the technology as follows:
Dr. Philip Light next to the tractor beam generator.
Currently, a "searchlight" beam is used to hold the atoms, but scientists want to use for future testing a beam that will form from a full light cone. This will allow the atoms to be trapped more efficiently and in complete darkness. In addition, such research can be useful in the field of studying the laws of quantum mechanics.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
