[Roo]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/shar...ity_Cloak.html

Scientists closer to developing invisibility cloak

WASHINGTON — Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.

Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.

Metamaterials are mixtures 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 trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows.

It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track.
The research was funded in part by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.

[LV-PRADAfanatic]

bad ppl will do bad things with it

[ShimmaPuff]

Originally Posted by LV-PRADAfanatic

bad ppl will do bad things with it

Of course! How do these scientists - or anyone else know that this has not already been figured out, and put into practice?

If one had an invisibility cloak, wouldn't issuing a press release to announce the new acquisition sort of defeat the purpose?

This particular story is almost identical to a similar one I remember reading about ten years ago.

Anyone who suggests that the technology is in fact already being used can be pointed to both the recent and earlier articles as "proof" that Science is still in these very early experimental stages...

[bag-mania]

Originally Posted by LV-PRADAfanatic

bad ppl will do bad things with it

I saw a story yesterday where they interviewed people on the street and asked them what they would do with an invisibility cloak and one guy outright said he would steal everything he could get his hands on.

[NLoveWithSales]

That's crazy...bizarre crimes would increase dramatically. Bank jobs would increase..an inside man that cant be seen

[canada's]

the government has been experimenting with this dating as far back as the philidelphia experiment/manhattan project.

these "new" developments are laughable.

[Roo]

The thing that concerns me the most about this is that it will be more easy than ever to violate a person's privacy

[volleyballgal]

^Thats what I was thinking. If invisibility cloaks were made, then they would have to be careful with who buys them and where they are made. Because if one got into the wrongs hands...bad things could definitely happen.
It would be cool though for a good purpose.

[louis loves fendi 818]

^ You would think but the way gun control it makes me think that they would be easy to attain in theory. But all that asside i think that they are improbable and if if the were for sale they would prob be hella expensive and have flaws. Like all new inventions. I highly doubt i'll see invisible crimanals in my lifetime or even my childrens. Scientist are close to developing a LOT of things. Like cure for cancer but they are far from there.

[JAN!]

I really do not want this to work out. Technology allows us to live more comfortably, but this can be more detrimental to that idea.

[ShimmaPuff]

Originally Posted by volleyballgal

^Thats what I was thinking. If invisibility cloaks were made, then they would have to be careful with who buys them and where they are made.

Who is "they" and how do you know their hands are not wrong?

[caxe]

Relax, guys. I highly doubt the technology will get to the point where it's purposeful in any of our lifetimes. LOL. These things they're cloaking are microscopic, after all.

[gr8heart]

Reminds me of that Kevin Bacon movie, "Hollow Man".

[louis loves fendi 818]

Originally Posted by gr8heart

Reminds me of that Kevin Bacon movie, "Hollow Man".

Oooh gurl! I love that movie! So scary how he goes all american physco ape $h*t nuts in the end! Me love some kevin bacon!

[aquablueness]

its amazing and scary at the same time....