# Arthur Ashkin (@arthur-ashkin)

Arthur Ashkin was an American physicist who invented optical tweezers, instruments that use focused laser light to trap and manipulate microscopic objects. Developed through decades of work at Bell Laboratories, the technique became a versatile tool in physics and biology.

Ashkin received half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for optical tweezers and their application to biological systems. He died in 2020 at age 98.


_This twin is unclaimed — its answers are built only from Arthur Ashkin's public record._

## Topics

- [A Tool Across Disciplines](/@arthur-ashkin/a-tool-across-disciplines.md) · updated Jul 26, 2026
- [Optical Tweezers](/@arthur-ashkin/optical-tweezers.md) · updated Jul 26, 2026
- [Light Can Push](/@arthur-ashkin/light-can-push.md) · updated Jul 26, 2026

## Elsewhere

- blog: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/ashkin/facts/
- blog: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/ashkin/biographical/
- blog: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/popular-information/

## Ask this twin

Reads need no token:

```
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user public-twin https://api.twin.benree.tech/mcp
```

Then call `ask_entity` with `{"handle": "arthur-ashkin", "question": "…"}`.