Scientists Closer To Making Invisibility Cloak A Reality

These materials are fascinating. I mean, to look at, rather than to find invisible. I have downloaded bits and pieces about this every time I see it in the news, there are papers available at Smith's webpage and others of course, kicking around the google.

If I had an engineering degree I would be knocking on these guys door to go work in their lab. (sigh..)

Wow! Now if we could just find a negative refractive index for gravity........?

if it works, the Army, Secret Agency, thief's, Stalkers and peeping Toms will gladly make use of it.

I haven't read THIS article, but did read several early last year, in which the authors pointed up the differences (considerable, where the science involved is concerned, between "rf" or "light, whether visible or invisible to the naked eye, and "electromagnetic" radiation). The point made was that it is imperative in designing these things to be certain you know what portion of the spectrum you are cloaking for, as it is possible that cloaking for one will increase visibility in another.

Just a thought.

Micah

That is interesting.

I was reading Pendry's article from 1996 last night - where as far as I understand, he talks about plasmons and how they are dissipated at lower frequencies, but they devised a method to get plasmon behaviour at far infrared and maybe into the Ghz.

When I first heard about metamaterials I thought it might be applicable in RF shielding but I guess not. It has made me think a lot about capacitance as well as inductance in conductive materials, and wondering how designing capacitance into an object would affect the resonant frequency, antenna activity and so on.

If it will happen it will give two shades, surely helps to defence system but if it come under thieves it will be very harmful...

A spin off of this research has resulted in a lab model of a wave guide that can theoretically make an island invisible to a tsunami, guiding the wave around.Strategically placed columns at critical spacing can accomplish this.If it scales up,as expected, this could save a lot of lives and property.Whooda thunk it?

It seems to me that the difference in density and mass between RF waves (zero, or nearly so, on both counts. There IS energy there, but I doubt its even measurable as a physical force.) and ocean waves, particularly Tsunamis (millions of ton/MILES of energy delivered, at speeds above 100 mph) would play a huge part in whether such an idea could even work. After all, diverting RF is fairly easy, even in the GWatt range, but diverting a simple wave at high tide is very difficult. I doubt anyone would ever try to run a generator on the energy in an RF wave, but its being done in many ports around the world with tidal changes.

Or did I miss a REALLY fundamental fact in here?

Micah

Check out this link, then tell me what you think.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926184626.htm

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I googled and found some articles about natural geological features under the sea, which act as waveguides for tsunamis. We're talking major terraforming here, to actually build this sort of "cloak". Also noted, a tsunami deflected from one place will necessarily hit another place hard. massive stuff...

Of course, it has nothing to do with "invisibility" , nor does it have anything to do with the cloaking technology in this story, involving metamaterials. These are nanomaterials with electromagnetic properties that don't occur in nature.

Just on first glance (and it doesn't say enough for more than that, does it?) it looks like what they are talking about is breaking up an incoming wave into myriad smaller waves, then setting them up in interference patterns, similar to the standing waves that occur in sound distribution systems, such as a PA system in a hallway, or in a long narrow, particularly low-ceilinged room. This application, though, would appear to take advantage of the PHYSICAL interference set up, making it possible by "dividing and conquering" the large incoming wave front. It isn't really making it invisible, but I can see how it could reduce the impact mightily, or at least shift it from one large object (the land mass) to many smaller, sacrificial objects (the planted obstacles). And they DO use the word obstacles, so it's pretty evident they don't really see it as "invisible" either.

GA! ++

Nevermind an invisibility cloak, when are scientist going to invent an invisible dress that you can see right through to be worn by supermodels just like in "The Emperor's New Clothes"?

I can just imagine Heidi Klum in one right now. Woo-Hoo!!!!