Nano-Tweezers Can Move Molecules With Light
Tiny tweezer The nano-tweezer is made by focusing a beam of laser light through a metal-coated optical fiber. Berthelot et al / Nature Nanotechnology Scientists have created the tiniest "tweezers" known to date, which can move around objects the size of single molecules with a "bow tie" of light. "To my knowledge these are the smallest tweezers ever built," physicist Mathieu Juan, from Sydney's Macquarie University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "They will allow people to manipulate, scan and move around very small objects such as viruses." In a study describing the technology, published in Nature Nanotechnology, the scientists were able to move a plastic sphere--that was only 50 nanometers wide, roughly 1,000 times thinner than a human hair--over significant distances. It works like this, according to ABC: The researchers focused a beam of laser light through...