Invisibility Cloaks Coming…X Ray Glasses Next?
August 14th, 2008 by jeff
There are all sorts of things boys grow up dreaming about owning. At first, these are simple things like bicycles and footballs. But, when our imagination reaches a certain point, we begin to think bigger. At this point, out comes the list:
1. Jet pack
2. Flying car
3. X Ray Glasses
4. Invisibility cloak
Ok, we all know that #1 is available but impractical and expensive. Flying cars SHOULD be in existence by now, but they aren’t (thanks a lot, Kia!). X Ray glasses are no longer necessary now that so many celebrities don’t wear undergarments to events and forget that a camera flash renders black material see through.
That leaves us with the mythical cloak of invisibility. Well, that may no longer be a dream.
Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.
The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.
Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don’t. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don’t create reflections or shadows.
It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track.
The research was funded in part by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation’s Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.
As if women didn’t have enough to worry about with cell phone cameras and video cameras in dressing rooms, now they get to worry about pervs wrapped in invisibility material pretending to be Harry Potter. (Don’t deny it. You know he spies on Hermoine in the shower ALL THE TIME…wizard freak) I know that the military is doing this research so they can better infiltrate people who buy books that are anti-American terrorist camps and enemy military bases and stuff, but imagine the thrill of thieves and perverts when they read this news.
I’m all for scientific advancement, but do we really want people to be invisible…other than Ryan Secrest? How about instead of invisibility they work on a anti-talking agent that renders people like Brooke Hogan mute. That would rock. Get on that army.
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Too funny on the Xray glasses, though I didn’t know that about the black clothing. I thought you were just going to say bec. they wear next to nothing anyway.