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Invisibility cloak


funky_house

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Saw this article. What would you do with an invisibility cloak? Real-life invisibility cloak on way. Scientists have taken a further step towards developing a practical invisibility cloak. Materials created by researchers in the US can bend light around three dimensional objects so they seem to disappear. Applying the technology on a larger scale could pave the way to a real-life Harry Potter-style "invisibility cloak" capable of hiding a person. The invisibility effect is made possible by means of "metamaterials" - materials with features smaller than the wavelength of light. Light bending relies on reversing refraction, the effect that "bends" a straw placed in water. Rays of light are made to flow around an object, like "water around a rock". Previous research has demonstrated "negative refraction" with invisible microwaves. Two US teams led by Dr Xiang Zhang from the University of California at Berkeley have now produced materials that can bend wavelengths much closer to the visible light, and in three dimensions. One approach used a "fishnet" silver and magnesium structure. The other used microscopic "nanowires" made of silver. The research is published in the two journals Nature and Science.

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Saw this article. What would you do with an invisibility cloak? Real-life invisibility cloak on way. Scientists have taken a further step towards developing a practical invisibility cloak. Materials created by researchers in the US can bend light around three dimensional objects so they seem to disappear. Applying the technology on a larger scale could pave the way to a real-life Harry Potter-style "invisibility cloak" capable of hiding a person. The invisibility effect is made possible by means of "metamaterials" - materials with features smaller than the wavelength of light. Light bending relies on reversing refraction, the effect that "bends" a straw placed in water. Rays of light are made to flow around an object, like "water around a rock". Previous research has demonstrated "negative refraction" with invisible microwaves. Two US teams led by Dr Xiang Zhang from the University of California at Berkeley have now produced materials that can bend wavelengths much closer to the visible light, and in three dimensions. One approach used a "fishnet" silver and magnesium structure. The other used microscopic "nanowires" made of silver. The research is published in the two journals Nature and Science.

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incidentally if i'm not mistaken this approach to invisibility was described in (verrry) broad strokes a jack London story from the 1800s, "The Shadow and the Flash."

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That will be one invisibility cloak and a pair of those glasses that can see through matter for me. Of course, this is purely for professional use... :)

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