Invisible material discovered Once the stuff of science fiction, now maybe a future reality. The mind boggles at the applications for such a discovery. The thought of people creeping around in our daily lives unseen with the naked eye is quiet a disturbing vision of the future dont you think?
They've been trying to do this for years, I sometimes wonder if some of the current batch of research scientists are actually sci-fi and fantasy fans. I often wonder if they see something amazing in a film or tv series and think "hey wouldn't that be great if we could really do that!" and off they trot to their trusty little workstations and number crunch a computer model of the camoflage suit from Predator. There was a high tech weapons programme on one of the Discovery channels last year about the counter terrorist application of just such a device, pretty sure it was a repeat, where they showed a hostage rescue situation where the troops used a cloaking device just like the one in the article mounted on a vehicle. Its a great concept but a long way away from any kind of practical use but it is a start.
Unfortunately I think this has only been done on a really small scale (microscopic, maybe even smaller), doesn't take away from the cool physics tho. I remember seeing a while back when they did this with microwaves, the step down to visible wavelengths is a big one, but the real development is certain to be focused in between - at radar wavelengths. Imagine a perfect stealth coating for any aircraft, whatever size or shape, it could be retrofitted onto existing airframes to provide say stealth tankers. After all, the research is funded by the military. Actually, given the military involvement, I wouldn't surprised if they were near to developing a process to produce it on a large scale and we are only just hearing about this. Also, not so much 'discovered' as invented or produced...
Article about the same group, but their earlier success with microwaves: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6064620.stm Doubt that the visible light one was anywhere near that size, or else there really should be a video. The size of the object is probably closely related to the wavelength at the moment. I wonder if the visible light one covers a decent range? Just bending/refracting/whatever one small section of the spectrum would be cool, but pretty useless. Unless it was the frequency used by a specific radar.
here's a question, if you bend light around something. lets say for the sake of argument, a person, how does the person see when no light is getting to their eyes? Apply the same concept to a veichle, how does the driver drive? Would an infra red camera work if light was being bent around it?
lmao. Very interesting indeed, though what are the chances that if this does advance far enough, the military will steal it and hide it for a decade or two?
Sounds like it's a super fine mesh, forming millions of "tubes", that can wrap an object or person, and internal reflection takes care of reflecting/bending the light. This would only work at making something invisible, when it is viewed at a particular angle, or at best only when viewed within a limited range of angles/field of view.
I'd need a fridge box, one of the big ones, though. Might not be as inconspicuous as the smaller ones Snake uses Might JUST make it into an oil drum, though.
