The new app is an interface for controlling optical tweezers, an instrument that uses laser light to trap and move microscopic objects. It works a little like a sci-fi tractor beam: The radiation from a tightly focused beam of light applies enough pressure to tiny objects like cells or proteins to pin them to the spot or push them around.
The invention of optical tweezers won Secretary of Energy Steven Chu a Nobel Prize in Physics, and they have proven their worth in biology labs, where they have been used to trap and manipulate everything from viruses to DNA. They have helped measure some of the smallest forces ever recorded, detected how DNA’s double helix unzips, and watched molecular motors move matter around inside cells.
Now, hopefully, it will run even "faster" and more smoothly on iPad2! :)
Zz.
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