Does Debbie

Friday, October 20, 2006

Hide

There are days where I want to disappear. No, not an a Girl, Interrupted, slit wrists kind of way. I just want to hide. Be a fly on the wall. Be invisible.

And it now seems that this wish might just come true some day.

"Scientists are boldly going where only fiction has gone before -- to develop a Cloak of Invisibility. It isn't quite ready to hide a Romulan space ship from Capt. James T. Kirk or to disguise Harry Potter, but it is a significant start and could show the way to more sophisticated designs.

The "metamaterial" cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a "hidden" object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all. In this first successful experiment, researchers from the United States and England were able to cloak a copper cylinder. It's like a mirage, where heat causes the bending of light rays and cloaks the road ahead behind an image of the sky.

"We have built an artificial mirage that can hide something from would-be observers in any direction," said cloak designer David Schurig, a research associate in Duke University's electrical and computer engineering department.

The new work points the way for an improved version that could hide people and objects from visible light.

The cloak is made of metamaterials, which are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. In an ideal situation, the cloak and the item it is hiding would be invisible. An observer would see whatever is beyond them, with no evidence the cloaked item exists."

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

1 Comments:

  • At 10:23 AM, Blogger Chris said…

    Three words:

    Girls locker room.

    C'mon guys amirite???

     

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