Metamaterials to Render Humans Invisible
A couple of weeks ago I was telling you about a group of British scientists that hope to complete an invisibility cloak in 3-4 years. But did you think the American scientist would just stand there and watch the others invent stuff? No, the Americans are well on their way to complete a cloaking material as well. They claim that they are now a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.
According to Associated Press, the American researchers from the University of California, Berkley have recently demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, their cloaking materials allowed only planar, 2D objects to be rendered invisible.
The group of researchers is lead by Xiang Zhang, and their recent findings are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science. Just as I suspected, the US army is already looking forward to testing these special materials that would bring immense (quite unfair I should say) advantages to advanced covert ops.
The new cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, which have an interesting property that allows them to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream. Metamaterials are made up of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are now trying to get these materials to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows.
Coming as no surprise, the research is continuously funded in part by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.
Loading ...
10 Responses to “Metamaterials to Render Humans Invisible”
By Chris on Aug 14, 2008 | Reply
Pretty neat stuff, I remember reading about this a year or so ago. Too bad we’ll never get our hands on it.
By Bogdan Alex on Aug 15, 2008 | Reply
Let’s be a bit optimistic here. Maybe we’lll get to try such stuff in 10 years or even sooner
By Axel on Aug 15, 2008 | Reply
Am i reading an msg4 topic?, dang in the near future things will be so fkn crazy, have you seen the exoesqueleton some nations are desgning, look at youtube.
By mikey on Aug 16, 2008 | Reply
IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT……..WHATEVER THE POWERS THAT BE SHOW US THEY’VE INVENTED THIS AND THAT AND WHAT TECHNOLOGY THERE ON THE ‘BRINK’ OF DEVELOPING- IT’S ALL BULLSHIT, U CAN BET A FISTFULL OF CIRCUIT BOARDS THAT ‘THEY’ ARE ABOUT 10 YRS AHEAD OF WHAT WE THINK THEY ARE…….MOST OF THIS (IF NOT ALL!) WILL BE CLASSIFIED AS THE CIA, MI5/6, MILITARY ‘DARK OPS’ UNITS (SAS,NAVY SEALS ETC ETC)WILL BE USING THEM IN SOME WAR THEATRE SOMEWERE ON EARTH – WE’RE ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW AND IN CASES LIKE THIS ARE ABOUT A DECADE BEHIND ‘ACKNOWLEDGEMENT’ THAT THESE DEVICES EXIST OR /AND GENERAL RELEASE OF THE SAME.
YES…….CONCPIRACY THEORYS ARE TOP OF MY AGENDA! LOL.
MIKEY
By Bogdan Alex on Aug 17, 2008 | Reply
I’m sure the armies have all sorts of advanced tech, but maybe the guys at UCLA and the British just want to develop something for mass production.
By Tamwyn on Aug 20, 2008 | Reply
WHY DO YOU HAVE TO USE ALL CAPS?!! DO YOU THINK YOU NEED ATTENTION?? I HATE YOU!!
Anyway, that sounds great. Invisibility in the military is a no-brainer. It’ll give a huge advantage and make other countries as afraid of us as they should be. Lol.
By squidoo on Aug 24, 2008 | Reply
Yeah I remember hearing about this a few years back, glad to hear they have an update on it. When its perfected, we might have invisible theives, invisible terrorists, and invisible kidnappers.
By Ryan on Dec 10, 2008 | Reply
Almost as soon as this stuff is developed, someone will develop some way to see “through” this invisibility. I don’t want to speculate exactly how, but I’m sure it will be done sooner or later, and most likely sooner.
By Ryan on Dec 10, 2008 | Reply
Almost as soon as this is developed, someone will come up with a way to see “through” this invisibility. I don’t want to speculate how, but I’m sure it will happen sooner or later, and most likely sooner.