Nobody explains how it properly works. Even the article author does not understand it.

Experiment is in a low pressure cabin.

Laser is shot on a graphine siliciumoxid strip from on side, but the strip moves towards the laser, which is counterintuitive, as the heatup of the lasered area should push it away from the light source. So why does it move towards the light source? They explain that the air pressure behind on the other side of strip opposite to the lasered area increases in air pressure relative to the frontal face that gets lasered, and thus pushes the object towards the light source. But that would mean that the heatup of the lasered area leads to lower air pressure directly in front of it which is counterintuitive.

I personally can't wait to summon a cold beer from the kitchen/fridge while staying on the couch watching a show

>Researchers have developed a way to use laser light to pull a macroscopic object. Although microscopic optical tractor beams have been demonstrated before, this is one of the first times that laser pulling has been used on larger objects.
>
>Light contains both energy and momentum that can be used for various types of optical manipulation such as levitation and rotation. Optical tweezers, for example, are commonly used scientific instruments that use laser light to hold and manipulate tiny objects such as atoms or cells. For the last ten years, scientists have been working on a new type of optical manipulation: using laser light to create an optical tractor beam that could pull objects.
>
>"In previous studies, the light pulling force was too small to pull a macroscopical object," said research team member Lei Wang from QingDao University of Science and Technology in China. "With our new approach, the light pulling force has a much larger amplitude. In fact, it is more than three orders of magnitudes larger than the light pressure used to drive a solar sail, which uses the momentum of photons to exert a small pushing force."

>When objects made from the graphene-SiO2 composite structure are irradiated by a laser beam, gas molecules on their back side receive more energy and push the object toward the light source. Combining this with the low air pressure of a rarified gas environment allowed the researchers to obtain a laser pulling force strong enough to move macroscopic objects.

tldr; Sounds like this doesn't work in a vacuum. So no Star Trek type tractor beams (or impulse drives) yet.

[removed]

The following submission statement was provided by /u/Semifreak:

>Researchers have developed a way to use laser light to pull a macroscopic object. Although microscopic optical tractor beams have been demonstrated before, this is one of the first times that laser pulling has been used on larger objects.
>
>Light contains both energy and momentum that can be used for various types of optical manipulation such as levitation and rotation. Optical tweezers, for example, are commonly used scientific instruments that use laser light to hold and manipulate tiny objects such as atoms or cells. For the last ten years, scientists have been working on a new type of optical manipulation: using laser light to create an optical tractor beam that could pull objects.
>
>"In previous studies, the light pulling force was too small to pull a macroscopical object," said research team member Lei Wang from QingDao University of Science and Technology in China. "With our new approach, the light pulling force has a much larger amplitude. In fact, it is more than three orders of magnitudes larger than the light pressure used to drive a solar sail, which uses the momentum of photons to exert a small pushing force."

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/10e7ngs/researchers_create_an_optical_tractor_beam_that/j4pcuqk/

Seems like heating on the front side leading to lower density.

Could this, eventually ,be used to operate on and correct bone malunions rather than the primitive, slice and dice orthopedics that we have now?