BBC Focus Magazine

[M Paul Lloyd]

The Star Trek universe just took a step closer to our own.

Researchers from the Australian National University have announced that they have built a device that can move small particles a meter and a half using only the power of light.
Physicists have been able to manipulate tiny particles over miniscule distances by using lasers for years. Optical tweezers that can move particles a few millimeters are common.
Andrei Rhode, a researcher involved with the project, said that existing optical tweezers are able to move particles the size of a bacterium a few millimeters in a liquid. Their new technique can move objects one hundred times that size over a distance of a meter or more.
The device works by shining a hollow laser beam around tiny glass particles. The air surrounding the particle heats up, while the dark center of the beam stays cool. When the particle starts to drift out of the middle and into the bright laser beam, the force of heated air molecules bouncing around and hitting the particle's surface is enough to nudge it back to the center.
A small amount of light also seeps into the darker middle part of the beam, heating the air on one side of the particle and pushing it along the length of the laser beam. If another such laser is lined up on the opposite side of the beam, the speed and direction the particle moves can be easily manipulated by changing the brightness of the beams.

http://www.physorg.com/news203157529.html

[The Beige Avenger]

far from the awesome of tractor beams... but pretty nifty.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Well a century ago the great and mighty said that heavier than air flight was nought but a passing whimsy.

[Healerman]

Heavier than air flight?

Next, you'll be suggesting building ships from iron instead of wood, though granted they would perhaps fare better when falling over the edge.

A tractor beam? Amazes me how much science fiction from my youth is now science fact...now where's the blotting paper?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Heavier than air flight?

As in, by means of an apparatus that is heavier than the fluid environment through which is passes, for example an aeroplane, as opposed to one which is lighter than said medium, such a balloon.