Latest Optical tweezers Stories
[ Watch the Video ] 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 NASA Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) has awarded Principal Investigator Paul Stysley and team members Demetrios Poulios and Barry Coyle at NASA's...
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researchers Dr. Sean J. Hart, Dr. Colin G. Hebert and Mr. Alex Terray have developed a laser-based analysis method that can detect optical pressure differences between populations or classes of blood cells that does not rely on prior knowledge, antibodies, or fluorescent labels for discrimination. "Biological analysis systems that rely on labels can be costly, labor intensive and depend upon prior knowledge of the target in question," says Dr. Hart, NRL...
Improved device eliminates a barrier to handling nanoscale particles Engineers at Harvard have created a device that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses. Their plasmonic nanotweezers, revealed this month in Nature Communications, use light from a laser to trap nanoscale particles. The new device creates strong forces more efficiently than traditional optical tweezers and eliminates a problem that caused earlier setups to overheat. "We can...
Sequencing DNA base pairs "“ the individual molecules that make up DNA "“ is key for medical researchers working toward personalized medicine. Being able to isolate, study and sequence these DNA molecules would allow scientists to tailor diagnostic testing, therapies and treatments based on each patient's individual genetic makeup.But being able to isolate individual molecules like DNA base pairs, which are just two nanometers across "“ or about 1/50,000th the diameter of a human hair...
Liz Ahlberg, University of IllinoisIllinois researchers have combined two molecular imaging technologies to create an instrument with incredible sensitivity that provides new, detailed insight into dynamic molecular processes.Physics professors Taekjip Ha and Yann Chemla and combined their expertise in single-molecule biophysics "“ fluorescence microscopy and optical traps, respectively "“ to study binding and unbinding of individual DNA segments to a larger strand. They and their joint...
The tractor beam -- a tool popularized in the realm of science fiction -- has been slowly making its way into the realm of reality, where beams of light are used to pull objects back toward the source of the light, BBC News reports. In a paper published online, researchers from Hong Kong and China have analyzed and calculated the conditions required to create a tractor beam, or in reality, a laser-based "pull." Unlike the ones popularized in science fiction -- most notably Star Trek -- the...
In a paradox typical of the quantum world, JILA scientists have eliminated collisions between atoms in an atomic clock by packing the atoms closer together. The surprising discovery, described in the Feb. 3 issue of Science Express, can boost the performance of experimental atomic clocks made of thousands or tens of thousands of neutral atoms trapped by intersecting laser beams.JILA is jointly operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado...
There is considerable interest in understanding transport and information pathways in living cells. It is crucial for both the transport of, for example, medicine into cells, the regulation of cell life processes and their signalling with their environment. New research in biophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute shows surprisingly that the transport mechanisms do not follow the expected pattern. The results have been published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.The researchers...
Star Trek fans will remember "tractor beams," lasers that allowed the Starship Enterprise to trap and move objects. Tel Aviv University is now turning this science fiction into science fact "” on a nano scale.A new tool developed by Tel Aviv University, Holographic Optical Tweezers (HOTs) use holographic technology to manipulate up to 300 nanoparticles at a time, such as beads of glass or polymer, that are too small and delicate to be handled with traditional laboratory...
While those wonderful light sabers in the Star Wars films remain the figment of George Lucas' fertile imagination, light mills "“ rotary motors driven by light "“ that can power objects thousands of times greater in size are now fact. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have created the first nano-sized light mill motor whose rotational speed and direction can be controlled by tuning...
