It's About Freaking Time: An Invisibility Cloak
Scientists at the University of California Berkeley have announced they're one step closer to the development of an invisibility cloak.
The light-bending effect relies on reversing refraction, the effect that makes a straw placed in water appear bent.
One approach used nanometre-scale stacks of silver and magnesium fluoride in a "fishnet" structure, while another made use of nanowires made of silver.Light is neither absorbed nor reflected by the objects, passing "like water flowing around a rock," according to the researchers. As a result, only the light from behind the objects can be seen.
The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.
Sweeeeet. Can you imagine the chaos once everybody gets their hands on an invisibility cloak? The entire world will collapse and I'll die trapped underneath a bench in the women's locker room.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, that really is me in the picture with an invisibility helmet I've been developing the past couple months. Works like a charm!
Invisibility cloak 'step closer' [bbcnews]
Thanks to Ema, Popadopolis, Paul, and moe mentos, all of whom are ninjas and don't need invisibility cloaks.
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