ABSTRACT
The idea to use light to manipulate microscopic or nanoscopic objects in a laboratory setting was formulated very soon after the advent of the laser. The šeld was pioneered by Arthur Ashkin, who along with his coworkers managed to šrst trap dielectric spheres and later living cells (Ashkin and Dziedzic, 1987; Ashkin et al., 1986; Ashkin et al., 1987). Historically, optical manipulation of and within living objects progressed simultaneously-and in some cases, in the same laboratorieswith the early investigations to use light to trap and cool atomic species. Excellent accounts of the early history of the use of light to trap and manipulate biological objects may be found in the Nobel Prize acceptance speech of Steven Chu (Chu, 1998) or in an inaugural lecture for the National Academy of Sciences of the United States by Arthur Ashkin (Ashkin, 1997).
