How many times as a child did you wish that you were invisible? (Along with flying and other things!) On the other hand, how many times as an adult have you found yourself in situations where such magic would solve the trickiest of problems? Nodding your head yet? I know I am.
And now, suddenly I find myself humming along to the Harry Potter theme tune (come on, you know you're doing it too) because, one day, in the not too distant future, the Invisibility Cloak may well be a thing of reality.
It's all very scientific! Researchers at the University of Carolina in Berkley, USA, have developed two artificial materials, called 'metamaterials'. One uses nanometre-scale stacks of silver and magnesium fluoride in a 'fishnet' type structure and the other uses nanowires made of silver. These approaches neither absorb nor reflect light, but curve light around 3D objects; thus giving the appearance that they have vanished.
The current testing is on a nano scale; however the team at Carolina University, led by scientist Xiang Zhang, feel that the principles could one day be scaled up to create an invisibility cloak, large enough to hide people.
"In order to have the 'Harry Potter' effect, you just need to find the right materials for the visible wavelengths" explains Professor Ortwin Hess (Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey) "and it's absolutely thrilling to see we're on the right track."
How cool would it be to actually be able to purchase an out-of-this-world gadget such as an invisibility cloak? Perhaps one day in the future, the Gadgetshop may stock such an invention. For now, we'll just have to be extremely quiet, tiptoe and hope for the best!
3 thoughts on “Turning Fantasy into Reality: The Invisibility Cloak.”
This definately sounds cool. I would love one and can think of so many cool things I could do with it.
But can you imagine how criminal will use this, a mugger can steal you mobile put it in his cloak and you’d be left confused thinking where did it go?
From what I saw on the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7553061.stm) it’s still very rudimentary-looking from my view, I don’t think “true” invisibility is coming any time soon. And when it does I am sure it will be heavily regulated to stop criminals miusing it. Then again – how would you catch them? Maybe infra-red goggles or something…
Well, I’m sure years and years ago, they never thought man would walk on the moon!
We’ll have to wait and see. Would be pretty cool if it they could bend light enough to make it appear as though a human was invisible.
(And that’s providing the moon thing wasn’t a huge hoax to begin with… ooohhh!)