SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

"Current methods for moving individual cells or tiny beads include such devices as optical tweezers, which require a lot of energy and could damage or even kill live cells", said Penn State Assistant Professor Tony Jun Huang. "Acoustic tweezers are much smaller than optical tweezers and use 500,000 times less energy."

While optical tweezers are large and expensive, Huang said acoustic tweezers are smaller than a dime, small enough to fabricate on a chip using standard chip manufacturing techniques. They can also manipulate live cells without damaging or killing them.

"Acoustic tweezers are not just useful in biology", he said. "They can be used in physics, chemistry and materials science to create patterns of nanoparticles for coatings or to etch surfaces."

The study that included Jinjie Shi, Daniel Ahmed, Sz-Chin Steven Lin, Xiaole Mao and Aitan Lawit appeared in a recent issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.

 BREAKING STORIES

Philadelphia court prepares for overflow crowd in Oprah trial

Songbirds may help solve speech disorders

Chickens found wandering Pittsburgh campus

Sun-Earth day to be marked by NASA webcast

Scientist urges better cancer cell tests

Pa. Muslim group condemns book series

2010 energy prize competition begins

Date set for Oprah defamation trial

One dead in Pennsylvania train collision

NWS expects flooding in Pa, W.Va.

Jihad Jane had troubled past, records show

Investigators to probe Roethlisberger case

Target sued over trunk used as toy box

Bank sued over 'invasive' repossession

Musk Oxen decline due to climate change

Families sue serial killer for damages

Study looks at nanoplankton extinction

Oldest mammalian genome is sequenced

11 minutes enough to remember Westbrook's 8 years of brilliance

Feds investigate school's webcam policy