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Invisibility
What invisible objects will actually look like
By Darren Quick
19:52 November 12, 2009 PST
Over the last few years we’ve covered the development of “invisibility cloaks” using metamaterials – man-made structured composite materials exhibiting optical properties not found in nature that can guide light to achieve cloaking and other optical effects. In 2006, scientists at Duke University demonstrated in the laboratory that an object made of metamaterials can be partially invisible to particular wavelengths of light - not visible light, but rather microwaves. A few groups have even managed to achieve a microscopically-sized carpet-cloak. Now researchers have developed software that can show what such a cloaked object will actually look like. Read More
Tunable electromagnetic 'invisible gateway' brings science closer to fiction
17:30 August 26, 2009 PDT
Harnessing the unique properties of metamaterials, researchers in China have recently published a work detailing the implementation of a thin air, broadband and remotely controllable 'invisible gateway' that is able to shield all types of electromagnetic waves while letting through all other physical objects. Read More
Newly theorized active cloaking could achieve broadband invisibility
18:41 August 24, 2009 PDT
Mathematicians at the University of Utah have recently announced they have elaborated an innovative way to shield two-dimensional objects from all types of waves, from electromagnetic to those caused by natural events like earthquakes and tsunamis, leading the way to a completely new approach to achieving invisibility. Read More
Invisibility cloaking creeps closer to reality
18:28 July 18, 2009 PDT
Researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have recently designed a peculiar material — called a dc metamaterial — that has the property of making objects wrapped in it undetectable to magnetic and very low-frequency electromagnetic fields. The breakthrough brings the dream of "invisibility cloaking" closer to reality and could have important repercussions in both the military and medical fields. Read More
Bringing sight to the invisible
By Darren Quick
23:43 March 17, 2009 PDT
Invisibility has been a staple of science fiction, (and my own personal fantasies), for decades and in recent years we’ve watched as fiction edges ever closer to reality through the use of metamaterials. The problem with most of the devices currently being researched however, is that since they totally encompass the object being rendered invisible, they are also rendered blind as well, which kind of defeats the purpose. But a team from Hong Kong’s University of Science and Technology believes they have come up with an answer to this problem and that it is indeed possible to create a cloaking device that would be able to render an object invisible without encompassing it. Read More
Invisibility metamaterials research breakthrough
By Kyle Sherer
05:54 August 17, 2008 PDT
Development in metamaterials - the so called “left handed” composite materials that negatively refract light waves and promise the sci-fi scenario of rendering objects invisible - is accelerating with news this week of two breakthroughs from scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. Read More
Freedom Glen
- November 25, 2009 @ 02:47 UTC
