Tractor Beam Reality

Researchers have adapted a light-based technology employed widely in biology -- known as optical traps or optical tweezers -- to operate in a water-free liquid environment of carbon-rich organic solvents. The optical tweezers act as a light-based 'tractor beam' that can assemble nanoscale semiconductor materials precisely into larger structures. Unlike the tractor beams of science fiction, which might grab massive spaceships, these optical tweezers can trap materials that are nearly one billion times shorter than a meter.

ScienceDaily