Abracadabra! Invisibility Approaches Reality

Scientists are now scrutinizing the underlying physics to determine if theoretical invisibility cloaks can become a reality. Research has already shown that metamaterials — constructed from miniscule metallic wires and loops to control electromagnetic (EM) waves — can render objects invisible by creating a finite space devoid of EM waves.

Initial applications would probably be cloaking military planes and weapons; others include looking through walls like a window and erasing industrial plants from the landscape. Future potential applications are innumerable, or could be described to follow a complex curve that's asymptotic to infinity. Inevitably, world-class magicians would have to change their acts to make objects appear instead of disappear.

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