"It is an area that has great potential for developing new surgical techniques, among other applications, something which Dundee is very much at the forefront of.
"Like Doctor Who's own device, our sonic screwdriver is capable of much more than just spinning things around."
The <link> <caption>results of the sonic screwdriver experiment </caption> <url href="http://prl.aps.org/accepted/L/3507dYd1A8b1ed34d3e32f058eb40a716e9a836ae?ajax=1&height=500&width=500" platform="highweb"/> </link> will be published in the American Physical Society's journal Physical Review Letters.
The research also forms part of a UK-wide Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council project known as Sonotweezers, which aims to bring dexterity and flexibility to ultrasonic manipulation, allowing applications in a wide range of topics including regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, developmental biology and physics.
In the popular BBC TV series, Doctor Who uses his sonic screwdriver to perform medical scans, remotely control other devices and pick locks.