I have been working on a simple optical tweezers set up. The basic idea behind optical tweezers is that a focused laser beam will actually attract dielectric materials into the focus, and thus one can manipulate small objects. For a more detailed look at the setup, as well as descriptions of proper alignment and sample preparation, please refer to Yiyi Deng's page. I was attempting to realign the setup and improve it, for use in trapping both polystyrene beads and yeast cells, but as the presentation shows, I achieved limited success. Multiple questions still need to be answered - for ongoing updates, please refer to my updates page.