Tractor Beam

Made famous by Star Trek—tractor beams are electromagnetic rays that hold an object in space and can also be used to pull objects towards the source of the beam. Such technology is already in use but at a microscopic scale. In 2007, MIT researchers demonstrated such a beam to pickup, hold, and move around individual cells and objects on the surface of a microchip. The beam itself consisted was a laser ray which could be used to push and pull, in a manner similar to how one might use a pair of tweezers.