Laser tweezers manipulate objects just 50 nanometers wide

Technique could allow scientists to move proteins, viruses and nanomaterials

BEAD CAPTURE  A 50-nanometer-wide plastic bead (yellow circle, center) is trapped by light in this illustration. Laser light gets focused by a bow tie–shaped hole etched into a thin gold film at the tip of an optical fiber.

R. Quidant

A new set of laser tweezers offers scientists unprecedented control over objects just tens of billionths of a meter in size.