Star Trek's Captain Kirk has praised scientists at a Scots university for proving that one of the cult show's most famous gadgets actually works.

St Andrews University recently revealed its scientists had invented a real-life tractor beam, as featured in the famous sci-fi series.

After the discovery was revealed, it was tweeted about by William Shatner, captain of the Starship Enterprise in the original 1966 TV show and the motion pictures that followed.

The university said: "This is definitely a first for St Andrews, to have boldly gone where no other university press release has gone before and caught the eye of James T Kirk himself. It's Fife Jim, but not as we know it."