WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff is Caught in a Tractor Beam 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.880 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.680 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.959 I Heart Radio and I love all things tech and 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.599 today is a Friday, so it is time for another 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:28.280 tech Stuff classic episode. This episode originally published on February 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:33.000 two thousand thirteen. It is titled tech Stuff is Caught 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.400 in a Tractor Beam. Lauren Vogelbaum and I sat down 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.559 to talk about the technology of tractor beams. Is it 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:43.960 realistic in what ways? Is it realistic versus unrealistic? How 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.400 might it actually work? And would it be remarkably different 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.960 from the way it's depicted in science fiction films. I 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.159 hope you guys enjoy it, So let's sit back and 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.880 listen to this classic episode tractor Beam, tractor beams. Yes, Yeah, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.280 this is This was something that Lauren had suggested because 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.960 she saw an item in the news, and at the time, 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.720 I would imagine Lauren had no idea how incredibly complex 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.400 a topic this would turn out to be. Ye, As 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.240 it turns out, particle physics is not simple necessarily, but 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.759 we're gonna tackle it anyway. We are We are indeed, 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:16.240 because you know what, we've watched a lot of star 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:18.640 Trek between the two of us. We have faith in ourselves. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:20.600 So let's let's talk about what a tractor beam is, 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.319 especially in that realm of science fiction, because I think 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:27.120 that's where most people have encountered the original idea, right sure, 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.280 and especially since tractor beams do not exist as such 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.840 in three dimensions in the real world yet, not on 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.240 the macro level anyway, right, not not nothing that you 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.960 could see with your own two eyeballs. Right. So essentially 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:44.840 it's a intergalactic tow truck kind of thing. Yes, a 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.840 beam of light that can be used to pull objects 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.320 towards the source of that light. Yeah, which is that's 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.800 pretty phenomenal because, as we understand in physics, light does 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:59.880 in fact exert a pressure time push stuff. Kepler said 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:03.560 that Yep, exactly, yep, yep Kepler. Kepler observed this, and 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.120 in fact it serves as the basis for uh futuristic 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.880 technologies such as sun sales. Similar sales. These would be 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:15.480 enormous sales, literally sales that you would extend from a 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:20.040 spacecraft and allow sunlight to press against the sale and 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.600 thus propelled the StarCraft because you're talking about being in 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:27.280 an environment where there's no there's no gravity that's affecting 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.120 you apart from well, I mean, they're gonna have gravity 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.040 within the Solar System, but you're not working like trying 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.399 to escape gravity. At that point. You're actually already out 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.399 in space, so you're not having to worry as much 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.880 about things like friction and gravity. So smaller forces, for example, 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:49.120 photons can so so to have a kind of light 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.240 that would be able to trap an object and even 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.200 pull it in is sort of counterintuitive based upon the 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.640 knowledge that photons can push stuff away. So we've seen 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.360 tractor beams used in lots of different science fiction you. 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.000 Star Trek, of course, is one of the big examples. Yeah. 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.680 The first reference was actually in The Skylark of Space, 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.519 which was a drama by Et Smith, originally serialized in 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.680 n and published as a novel in nine. Wow, I 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:17.839 did not know that. I do know that it's used 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.079 in Star Trek quite a bit. There are two things 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.440 that you have to remember about Star Trek tractor beams. 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.880 They can pull just about anything anywhere, and if you 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.639 reverse the polarity, you can turn it into a weapon. Well, 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.920 reversing the polarity, as we all know, is how you 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.520 do things in Star Trek. Yeah, I was explaining earlier. 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.600 It is the have you tried turning it off and 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.680 on again approach in Star Trek. If if it's something's 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.640 not working, reverse the polarity and then it works. Uh. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:45.920 And then, of course in Star Wars it was used. 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.280 The Death Star catches the Millennium Falcon in a tractor 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.960 beam and a series of tractor beans, a whole connexus 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.000 of tractor being right, and pulls it back into the 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.400 Death Star so that the Millenium Falcon cannot make its 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.960 daring escape. This, of course allows dar Vader to face 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.600 off against Obi one Kenobi, and I could go on, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.160 but that's not what this episode is about. Also, I 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.240 suspect that a few of our listeners have seen Star Wars, 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.760 maybe maybe one or two. Episode four is amazing. If 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:14.240 you have not seen it, you need to go check 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.800 it out. But anyway, yeah, so, so science fiction is 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.799 one of those things that is a really useful tool 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.839 for storytellers. Uh. If they have a story about a 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.960 ship encountering some sort of wreck or other kind of 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.040 of body out in space, it needs to be pulled away. 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.120 And the nice thing is is that we've got scientists 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.359 here on Earth who are saying, hey, how can we 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.200 do this science fiction thing for reels right? Knowing how 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.520 light behaves and uh, and maybe finding new ways to 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.600 make light behave in perhaps an unexpected fashion. Well, I 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.120 suspect that, in fact, Star Trek used some actual research 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:53.960 that was going on in the nineteen sixties as a 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.600 basis for their tractor beam, because according according to the 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.080 Star Trek universe, the way that their tractor beam works 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.080 is it's actually WILLI a graviton force beam and I 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:03.680 just made little quote marks in the air for the 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.120 benefit of nobody really, so that was weird. Gravitons are 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:13.559 hypothetical particles that that essentially mediate the force of gravity. Uh. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:17.760 They're hypothetical because we have not observed an actual graviton. 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.360 We don't know how we would We don't we know 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.960 that in order for our quantum model of the universe 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.120 to make sense, we need something like a graviton to 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.400 exist to explain the force of gravity. There are four 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.800 fundamental forces in the universe. There's strong, nuclear, weak, nuclear, 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.480 electro magnetic, and gravity. Out of those, gravity is the weakest, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.839 but it's also the one that we cannot easily incorporate 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.840 into the quantum model of the physics. Right, It's sort 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:51.000 of assumed by Einstein's general theory of relativity that gravitational 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.480 waves are a thing that exists, that ripples in the 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:59.279 spacetime continuum, caused by very large moving objects, particularly, but 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.479 nobody has detected these. So so really the way we 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.240 observe this is through the force of gravity. I mean, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:10.800 that's that's that's we can see the outcome just exactly so. 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.080 And to explain to you guys how weak gravity is 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.920 in comparison to the other forces, here's a very simple, 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.719 uh experiment anyone can do anyone who has access to 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.880 a comb and a balloon. So let's say you've got, 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.680 you know, get a balloon. You just inflate the balloon 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.920 with oxygen. Don't do helium because that will negate the 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:33.800 results of this test. Check. So oxygen inflated balloon, you 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.520 sat down on a table. Gravity is pulling the balloon downward. 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.600 I am oversimplifying here, so physicists please don't don't write 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.400 in and complain. But the balloon is held to the 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.039 table in part due to friction, but also in part 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.960 due to gravity. If you were to take your comb 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:53.440 and rub it against say a sweater, and get build 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.839 up some stack electricity on the comb, and then touch 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.320 the comb to the balloon and lift, you would see 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.440 that the stag electricity that was generated while you were 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.719 rubbing the comb against your your sweater would be enough 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.800 to attract the balloon and lifted off the table. That 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.360 means that the any amount of electromatic force, the static 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.400 is stronger than the gravity. And the gravity, yeah, You've 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.720 got an entire planet beneath you that is got this 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:22.320 very strong gravitational pull, strong in comparison to other things 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.560 that we directly observe throughout the day, and yet it 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.920 is dwarfed by strong enough Yeah, strong enough to pull 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.400 a bowling ball from the top of tower. Right but 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.880 right so, and and gravity just so. To complete the 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.120 whole picture here, it depends on two things. It depends 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.080 on really you have to have two different bodies, but 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.160 it depends on the body's mass and their distance from 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:49.720 one another. But they do exert gravity, a gravitational pull 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.920 against each other. So, for instance, I have a cup 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.840 of tea in front of me, I am exerting a 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:58.720 very tiny gravitational pull on the cup of tea, and 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.680 it is exerting a very tiny gravitational poll on me. 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:04.560 Now this is dwarfed by the fact that I'm also 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:06.800 on the planet Earth and that the Earth is exerting 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.160 gravitational force on both of you. Right, So I you know, 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.480 I can't observe this. I don't really, I'm not aware 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.240 of it in any way. But that's that's yeah. So 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.800 keeping that in mind, one easy, relatively easy way of 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.040 having a tractor beam like effect, even though you wouldn't 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:29.600 be beaming anything, is to use the gravity of one 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:34.400 object to influence the movement of another object. Now, this 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.959 is something that we've talked about before on tech stuff, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.920 when we were chatting about could an asteroid destroy the 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:44.720 Earth if if, if some space agency. I was gonna 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.400 say NASA because that's the one that I'm most familiar with. 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.600 But if NASA were too identified that an asteroid twenty 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:58.560 years away has the the uh the chance potential to yeah, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.360 that would be a bad thing. Yes, because we all 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.680 learned in the documentary arm Again, Yes, that wonderful documentary 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.280 that taught me that Steve bu Simmy is a better 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.160 singer than Ben affleck Uh, which I had no way 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.280 of knowing until I saw that anyway that one way 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.480 of potentially deflecting the asteroid would be to send a 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.000 spacecraft up so that you move the spacecraft so it's 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.320 close enough to the asteroid so that they are are 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.160 pulling one another with a gravitational pull, and then you 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.200 use thrusters with the spacecraft to just very slowly push 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.120 just not really really it's pull. You're yeah, you're pulling 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:37.800 the asteroid because as you move the spacecraft away, the 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.240 gravitational pull makes the asteroid move with it, and all 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.360 you have to do is move it. The further out 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.120 you go from Earth, the less you need to move 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.439 the asteroids so that it has it misses the Earth right, 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.520 because you're talking about angles, So a couple of degrees 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.920 of difference way the way way the heck out in 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.920 space make enough difference to not kill everything on it, right, 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.120 it'll miss the planet in hirely, So that's the idea. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.800 So that's kind of like a tractor beam in the 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.520 sense that you're using an object to tow another object, 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.319 in this case objects that are in space, but you're 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.640 not actually shooting a beam of anything. Right. However, Yeah, 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:14.560 it's not it's not made of light. It doesn't do 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.280 that cool visual effect that you have a sound effect, 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.360 which obviously that would not not anything in space anyway. Sure, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.520 but hey, why why should we start criticizing Now that's 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.760 a that's a whole different episode. Um. And So, in 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:33.240 the nineteen sixties, people were really excited about detecting gravitational waves, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.960 and a few people in fact, suggested that we might 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.760 make a gravity laser. A couple of people, Helper and Laurent, 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.160 proposed that this could be called a gazer, which I 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.080 think is a terrific word. Yeah, and I think means 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.800 something entirely different. These are modern times, I think, Yeah, 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.480 I think I agree with you. I think at this 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:57.720 point the scientific community would say, can we ya? Um. 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.080 They proposed that we could vibrate some types of electric 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.760 crystals and create a whole thing. And but that's it's 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.880 never really come to fruition because the above re we 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.360 have never discovered gravitons, We have never measured gravitational waves. 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.280 Right for us to be able to create an object 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.600 that would use gravitons to to make a tractor being 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.160 we first sort of need to prove that gravitons in 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.559 fact exist, because again they're hypothetical right now. It's sort 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:25.640 of like the Higgs boson, right The Higgs boson was 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.480 a theoretical particle that physicists said, for our understanding of 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.320 the universe to make sense, we need this thing to 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.839 exist to explain why matter has mass, same sort of thing. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.960 In order for our understanding of gravity to make sense, 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.520 within the within the framework that we have of our 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.000 knowledge of the universe, knowing that we are by our 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.240 very nature limited in our understanding, a graviton needs to 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.960 exist for that model to really make sense. So we're 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:01.679 talking about mathematically, yes, these things to exist, but in reality, 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.360 we just haven't tracked it down yet. So if we 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.040 ever do, maybe we can make some sort of technology 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.319 that can take advantage of that. But until then, until then, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.640 maybe no gravitational lasers. Yeah, I personally hope that we 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.600 do crack that nut, because that would be I mean, 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.640 it would be an incredibly useful tool, and not just 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.240 in the context of space exploration. That's the one that 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.640 we all think about because again in science fiction, that 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.440 tends to be where tractor beams come into play. But 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.800 as it turns out, tractor beams can have a really 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:38.120 useful uh well in implementation here on Earth in space 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.520 on the planet, and I mean moving things is hard, 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.200 they're heavy, or even if they're or they're really small. 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.760 And so yeah, we'll talk a bit in a second 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:55.840 all about how some scientists are making micro versions of 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.240 tractor beams here on Earth and what those could be 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.120 used for. But first let's take a moment to thank 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:12.640 our sponsor for this episode, and now back to the show. 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.640 All right, so we've talked about using gravity to create 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.520 a tractor beam like effect, or possibly even using gravitons, 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.720 assuming we ever understand them. But that's not the only 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:28.120 way scientists are looking into creating a tractor beam like device. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:31.040 There's actually been quite a bit of news over the 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:37.080 last decade about scientists using various ways of manipulating light 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.680 to pull an object as opposed to push it away. Right, 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.920 Starting way back in six people started playing with what's 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.320 called optical tweezers, which are lasers that are capable of 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:53.600 manipulating molecules and moving them with precision. And now this 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.880 is not pulling a particle towards the light source, so 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.840 it's not technically a tractor beam, right, but it is. 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:04.320 It is a method of manipulating microscopic particles very precisely. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.760 So if you're thinking about a plane like an X 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.960 and Y axis, you could move particles within the X 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.240 and y axis, but you're not moving them along the 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.240 Z axis. That would be you know, from the source 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.600 of light to wherever the particle is. So in relation 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:21.600 to the source of light, the particle would not get 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:25.160 closer further away, but you could trap it and move 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.920 it within that X Y plane. That's that's my understanding. Yeah, yeah, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.760 and these are well I I that's my understanding as well. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.840 These these laser beams that are being used for this 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.640 have a Gaussian intensity profiles, which means that they're brighter 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:40.720 in the center than they are at the edges. Right. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.160 A Gaussian distribution is a normal distribution, and it can 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.840 be for anything from lasers to really you can even 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:50.680 see this in social sciences where you do a survey 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.000 and you have a Bell curve that shows a normal 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:58.680 distribution that's essentially a Gaussian distribution. So, Okay, light has momentum, right, right, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.160 and so when it hits an object, the object bends 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.840 the light which changes its momentum, and thus the object 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:08.200 is pushed back equally and oppositely by the light. Okay, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.800 I see, so the lights momentum has changed. The object's 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.160 momentum is also changed correct according to the conservation of momentum, 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:19.600 which you can see in normal, non microscopic classic physics. Right. 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.800 And so the Gaussian beam is important because if the 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.040 sample gets off center in the beam, the weaker light 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:27.200 at the edges is bending around the object and pushing 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.840 it out, but the stronger lighted center is bending around 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.360 it and pushing it back in, and the stronger force wins. 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.720 I see. Okay, Yeah, that makes way more sense than 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:39.280 everything else I read, because everything I read was a 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:41.520 lot of this. This research that we did for this 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:45.320 Pathicunar podcast is in is from scientific journals and uh. 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:46.960 And this is a good point for us to make. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.160 Lauren and I we're advocates of science education. Absolutely, we 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.440 both love science. That being said, neither of us are scientists, 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.600 and we certainly are not particle physicists. And so when 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.600 you get onto the quantum level, there's a certain level 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.360 of understanding that we are able to achieve. And beyond that, 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.320 this stuff is it is like magic to us. So 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.680 we're going to explain things as best we can, but 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.680 please understand there are subtleties to this that we cannot 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:20.080 easily explain because we haven't dedicated our lives to understanding 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.400 them exact and by so if we get anything wrong, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.800 please do right us in Um, we love getting that 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:28.880 kind of feedback, right, Yeah, No, we definitely want to 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.840 to communicate the correct information as best we can. But uh, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.640 you know this, this is exciting stuff. So in this case, 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:40.400 what Laurence talking about is using light to to uh 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:46.520 to isolate and then manipulate microscopic particles. But at this 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.360 point the stage what we're talking about does not include 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.960 pulling those particles towards the light source. However, we have discovered, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.760 or rather I should say we predibly smart people have 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.160 discovered ways of using light to act pull things towards 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.480 the source in a bunch of different ways. Actually, um, 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.640 there's one of those is called an optical vortex. Um 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:13.600 sounds kind of kind of freaky people. The main research 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.720 that I've read from this was from Australian National University 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:21.199 around so pretty recently, and the the idea of this 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.360 one is that they use a hollow laser beam to 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:29.000 trap light absorbing particles, and um, they get trapped in 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.360 the center of this laser beam because the heated air 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.919 molecules around them are pushing in on them goutches, so 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.720 they cannot they can't escape the laser beam. They're stuck 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.320 in that little hollow center, in the hollow center in 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:46.240 the in the the doughnut shaped laguer Gaussian laser beam. Yes, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.800 that right there, that thing exactly that you just said. Yeah, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:53.120 I have the note. I'm so glad that you did 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.439 more research on this because when I read that, my 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.200 eyes kind of glazed over. Yeah. Apparently they were able 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.280 to move particles about one and a half meters in 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:03.920 the air. Yeah, it's it's really exciting. By they found 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.880 out that by using too concentric hollow lasers, they can 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.320 adjust the brightness of the two of them there by 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:14.000 heating and cooling the air around the molecules and and 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.520 then therefore have the molecules move up and down as 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.160 they will through this hollow tube of light. Wow. So 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.880 so you're using two different lasers in order to make 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:26.159 that maintain this kind of movement. That makes sense, I 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.200 understand now. Yeah, I was wondering how that worked beforehand. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:31.000 But yeah, that that totally makes sense. And yeah, and 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.800 these are nanofoam particles that they were using to the 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.320 got transported over a meter and and all of this 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.720 is on the scale again of a very microscopic things. Right. 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.199 That's something that's important and we'll talk a little bit 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.399 more about that when we finish with all the different 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.320 laser methods. But yeah, the methods we're talking about are 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.040 very exciting. Don't get us wrong. They are incredibly exciting, 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:56.879 particularly in certain very specific implementations like in the medical field. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.560 Oh yeah, this is all going to be extremely exciting 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:04.680 for for example, removing bacteria from samples, sorting cells, municially 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.480 manipulating DNA strands is something the optical tweezers have been 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:09.880 used extensively for, right, so that there there are real 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.480 uses for this. But these are not the same technologies 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:17.080 that will let us move spacecraft like toe spacecraft away. 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:18.960 And we'll talk about why that is when we get 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:20.399 a little further in, because there are a couple of 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.480 other laser methods that we need to talk about, right right, Um, 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:26.919 back back on the kind of sale, the sort of 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:31.240 solar sale theme that we were discussing earlier. Optical lift 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.760 is another version of of light that can be used 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:39.320 to do stuff. It's it's actually just a really simple 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:43.200 analog of aerodynamic lift, which of course is when um 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:47.040 you create uh uh, how is it? It's higher pressure 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.280 underwing than over awing and therefore letting a plane lift 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.320 off the ground in the game. Before we get any 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:58.200 further physicists, that's also an oversimplification, and we acknowledge that, yes, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.639 there's more than geology, there's more than just that when 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.280 it comes to get an airplane off the ground. Also, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.880 we know all about the other forward momentum and everything else, 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.840 but but that that is the concept of lift. Thank you, 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.520 And so to get slightly fewer angry emails, it's only 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.360 because Chris and I received all those emails already, but 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.760 but deservedly so right, oh no, absolutely, yes we love 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:27.000 negative feedback. But so I nearly spit tea all over 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.199 my laptop. Please don't take that as a as a 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.639 Please don't take Lawrence Lauren's statement as a means to 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:36.320 send us the most negative feedback ever, because my feelings 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.359 do get hurt, and I apparent you just made a 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:43.720 complete liar out of me. That you almost snorfing your 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.320 tea completely made me crack up. Sorry about that, excellent, 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:53.120 But anyway back to optical lift. It's uh. The scientists 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.199 have discovered that that you can take an object with 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.320 a differently shaped top and bottom surface and it will 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.040 experience a lift force when please standing uniform stream of 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:05.280 light that's fast. This is all blowing my mind because 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.360 before we did this research, I never knew about these 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.200 different properties of light and and it just it really 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.639 stresses to me one amazing universe. This is, you know, 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:17.840 to to know that things behave on such a different 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:22.800 level than my previous understanding, and also illustrates quite effectively 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.800 how ignorant I am. But I love to learn, so 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.000 that's okay. Yeah we get we get paid to learn 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:29.720 this stuff and pass it on to you, which is 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:33.720 basically the most exciting thing. Um. One of the other 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.840 categories that I ran across were optical conveyors, which are 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:39.320 really fun. Those are those are the ones that are 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.119 using Bessel beams, and I think I think Jonathan has 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.080 a whole section about this one. Yeah, not a whole section, 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:45.600 but I can at least tell you what a Bessel 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.919 beam is. Because when I encountered that term, I thought, huh, what, 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.679 what exactly do they mean by Bessel beam. It's a 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:58.000 specific type of radiation, and that sort of radiation can 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:00.600 be a laser, it can be electroma, metic, it can 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:03.399 be acoustic, it could be gravitational. It doesn't really matter 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.840 what the type of radiation is, it's the form it takes. 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.560 And that form is a radiation where the amplitude is 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.800 described by a Bessel function of the first kind. Does 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:19.720 that mean essentially, it means that as this radiation moves forward, 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:23.400 it does not diffract in any way. It doesn't diffuse, 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.040 it does not spread out. In other words, it remains concentrated. 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:29.800 So what we think of that like a laser beam. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.280 When you shine a laser beam, it doesn't spread out 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.600 like a flashlight does. But this is a very specific 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.000 format of that. And in fact, because actually those those 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:40.600 laser beams that were that you point at something are 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.640 Gaussian laser beams. That's we discussed there, and so this 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.240