[Infowarrior] - Poof! Scientists closer to invisibility cloak

[Richard Forno]

(Paging Harry Potter.....--rf)

Poof! Scientists closer to invisibility cloak

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gnrH1I5OMi2psDdZ2cWrmQlVfyXgD92FPIOG0

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.