Tractor beams are one of the most iconic pieces of science-fiction technology, most likely popularized through movies and TV shows such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and anything to do with advanced alien ...

The nefarious tractor beam, otherwise known as the tool singlehandedly responsible for all alien abductions resulting in a special kind of probing, is soon to become a reality. An ensemble of ...

A tractor beam—a special beam of electromagnetic radiation that draws particles toward it instead of pushing them away—might be a concept straight from Star Trek, but scientists from the Australian ...

The quest for a real life tractor beam continues, with a 2-micrometer-thick silicon light bender. The silicon metasurface changes a solid beam into a triple spiral one that can pick up particles.