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Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

Posted August 11, 2008 8:54 AM

From BBC News | Technology | World Edition:

Scientists in the US say they have developed materials that can bend light around 3D objects making them "disappear". The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.

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Guru
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#1

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/11/2008 9:40 AM

This would be cool for me for about one day.

Then I'd put the thing down somewhere and never be able to find it again. I already do that with things I can see.

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#2

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/11/2008 10:34 AM

As fascinating as this technology is, I'm kind of in the market for a product that does something similar but different. I want to be able to put on a cloak that will make all the annoying people around me disappear.

I tried a poncho with studded with garlic and that worked fine. Until the rats came.

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#3

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/11/2008 1:39 PM

Invisibility cloaks are a great idea for technology, but it would be a bad idea for convicts and prisoners to get their hands on. I think invisibility gets most of its uses for bad things: like spying or escaping punishment. No one is going to use an invisibility cloak to clean someone's room for them (or other genuinely generous acts).

I like the idea, but hate the complications that could arise.

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#4
In reply to #3

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/11/2008 1:43 PM

ranks right up there with the ethical quagmire that is cloning.

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Guru

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#5

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/11/2008 1:50 PM

Where can I get one of these?

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Guru
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#6
In reply to #5

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/11/2008 9:07 PM

Try KrisDel Enterprises.

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#7

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/12/2008 2:07 AM

Well, you can bet your houses that the only uses for such products will be exclusively for government and military purposes only.

Forget costs, that is technology will never step outside such domains.

Cloaking aircraft weapons and people, would only change the course of war. Again.....

Why do I feel I always get closer and closer to living in an actual sci-fi movie ?

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#8

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/12/2008 9:55 AM

Whoa! Didn't see THAT coming...

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#9

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/12/2008 9:59 AM

If you had one, you could volunteer for the citizen's patrol and check the women's restroom for bad guys.

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#10

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/12/2008 10:03 AM

And we think the paparazzi are bad now?

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#11
In reply to #10

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/12/2008 10:07 AM

But the people they're stalking can use them too!

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#12
In reply to #11

Re: Invisibility cloak 'step closer'

08/12/2008 10:10 AM

Yeah, but unlike the paparazzi, the people they stalk have lives and can spend all day or all week next to the garbage can wearing one.

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