DIY: Turn sci-fi into reality by 3D printing your own portable sonic tractor beam
Is there anything you can't 3D print nowadays? From drones and buildings and to organs and mini pizzas, it seems like anything is possible with a 3D printer and the right kind of filament. You can even print your own 3D printer. But the most logical use for a 3D printer is to bring your favorite sci-fi technologies to life, like portable sonic tractor beams.
According to Sophie Bushwick for Popular Science: "In the past, scientists have used sound waves to push and pull small objects around. However, they required setups that shot sound from multiple directions. Then, a little over a year ago, physicists from the University of Bristol and the University of Sussex published a Nature article demonstrating the first sonic tractor beam to use a single beam of sound waves. Instead of relying on interactions between multiple beams, the new device manipulated the sound waves' shapes—and object-trapping abilities—with a complex electronic array. It could trap small beads, and even a fly.
Unfortunately, that electronic array made the original design too expensive and complex for the average DIYer to build. So the study's lead author Asier Marzo, currently a research assistant at the University of Bristol, adapted the instrument so hobbyists could make their own. First, he changed the design to get rid of the electronics. Instead of modulating sound waves with electronic components, the new device uses its own physical structure."
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
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