Post by summerdawn on Aug 12, 2008 12:44:59 GMT -5
(link)
www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/LIFE/808120303
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(story)
Wonder Woman fans may have to wait for a ride in her nifty, invisible jet, but Harry Potter-philes are one step closer to sneaking out of Hogwarts in their own Invisibility Cloak.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, say they are in the process of developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.
Best of all? No magic wands or spells required.
Using light-bending metamaterials -- mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite --- the researchers were able to cloak three-dimensional objects.
People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses metamaterials to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a rock in a stream.
Scientists are trying to use metamaterials to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows. The new work moves researchers a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
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.
The findings are to be released this week in the journals Nature and Science.
www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/LIFE/808120303
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(story)
Wonder Woman fans may have to wait for a ride in her nifty, invisible jet, but Harry Potter-philes are one step closer to sneaking out of Hogwarts in their own Invisibility Cloak.
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, say they are in the process of developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.
Best of all? No magic wands or spells required.
Using light-bending metamaterials -- mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite --- the researchers were able to cloak three-dimensional objects.
People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses metamaterials to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a rock in a stream.
Scientists are trying to use metamaterials to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows. The new work moves researchers a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
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.
The findings are to be released this week in the journals Nature and Science.