9 New Technologies That Are A Sci-Fi Fan's Wet Dream

7. Tractor Beams

Tractor beams are an essential part of your spaceship's arsenal if you plan on doing any capturing, towing or alien abducting.

Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Sussex have managed to develop a sonic beam that uses sound waves to manipulate matter.

It uses high-amplitude sound waves that act as sonic "tweezers" and allow the researchers to suspend small objects in mid air. The team even created 3D acoustic fields that were literally in the shape of fingers and cages to "pick up" and "trap" objects. The beam can only pick up tiny objects at the moment, but the guys are currently working on a version that could manipulate objects the size of a football.

Granted, sound wave-based tractor beams are not going to be all that helpful on your spaceship (there's no sound in space, remember?), but fear not, because researchers at the University of St Andrews are figuring out a way to do it with light too.