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A team of researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Sussex have developed the world's first functioning sonic tractor beam able to operate outside of a lab environment.

These waves create an "acoustic hologram" (read: force field) capable of moving pea-sized objects without physically touching them. Adjusting the output of individual speakers allows the researchers to move, rotate and hold items at will.

Humanoid robots are now being introduced into nursing homes, and as therapists, for example. The new Hello Barbie toy will be a "friend" to children, holding conversations with young boys and girls. Robots are even getting married in Japan.

A perfect example of the backlash against human-like machines happened last Friday, when Adrian David Cheok and David Levy were forced to cancel their second annual Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, set to be held in Malaysia next month.

The case of the cancelled conference is just the beginning of the kind of obstacles intellectuals and researchers may encounter in the pursuit of academic study of humanoid robotics—an increasingly controversial field as the line between fantasy and reality gets blurred