Scientists finally are able to make objects float using Tractor Beams....

Tractor Beams are real.......

Tractor beams have made the bounce from science fiction to reality as of late, however just for levitating small objects. A new breakthrough could lead to futuristic, far out new uses for the innovation and open the door to levitating significantly larger objects, including humans. Engineers from the University of Bristol have been able to trap objects using an acoustic tractor beam that is larger than the wavelengths of sound used by the device.

"Acoustic researchers had been frustrated by the size limit for years, so it's satisfying to find a way to overcome it. I think it opens the door to many new applications," Asier Marzo from Bristol's Department of Mechanical Engineering, said in a release. Marzo is the lead author on a paper published Monday in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Those applications could include touchless control of medication capsules or micro-surgical implements inside the human body using sonic tractor beams. It could also end up possible to move and manipulate fragile items in a radically new way.

"I'm particularly excited by the idea of contactless production lines where delicate objects are assembled without touching them," said Bristol's Bruce Drinkwater, who oversaw the work. The breakthrough comes from using rapidly fluctuating acoustic vortices, which the team describes as similar to "tornadoes of sound, made of a twister-like structure with boisterous sound surrounding a silent center."

By changing the twisting direction of the vortices, the researchers could stabilize the tractor beam and increase the size of the silent center, allowing it to hold larger objects. Using this technique and 40kHz ultrasonic waves, they could levitate a two-centimeter polystyrene sphere, the largest protest at any point trapped in a real-world tractor beam.