1. ddobbs
  2. collision detection: Chinese scientists unveil "the anti cloak" -- technique for defeating invisibility shields

collision detection: Chinese scientists unveil "the anti cloak" -- technique for defeating invisibility shields

By ddobbs on September 9, 2008.

From the "Where Do They Find the Time" Dept, via Clive Thompson's collision detection:

Chinese scientists unveil "the anti cloak" -- technique for defeating invisibility shields



Okay, the war over "invisibility cloaks" has officially begun. A team of Chinese scientists have just announced that they've figured out how to defeat invisibility technology -- and render "invisible" objects visible.You may remember the famous experiment in 2006 in which Duke University scientists created an "invisibility cloak" -- a wave-morphing shield that allowed them to render an object mostly invisible to microwave beams. (Check out a video of their original demonstration here; it's pretty cool.) This generated endless news stories that breathlessly invoked Harry Potter; more hilariously yet, it set off a mini-boom in researchers frantically working on their own invisibility cloaks.

And you thought they just did this stuff in Batman movies.

More at collision detection.



Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Tags
Uncategorized

More like this

Get your Invisibility Cloak here
Posted by LisaJ Now this is a super cool new Science story. Have you ever wanted to make yourself invisible? Ever said "man, I wish I could just run away or hide and make everyone go away"? Maybe as a young 8 year old, trying to hide from those bullies on the playground. Or perhaps you'd like…
Negative refractive index material created
German scientists have created a metamaterial with a negative refractive index for far red light: The trick is to assemble an array of electronic components that resonate with the electric and magnetic fields of the light waves as they pass through. These materials are unlike any conventional…
The Eighth Harry Potter Book?
You can't have it until December, but you can pre-order it now (in case they run out!). Click the picture. Maybe. Probably, this is more properly thought of as the Zeroth Harry Potter Book. Do you know about the Tales of Beedle the Bard? According to Julia (I didn't know) it has to do with…
negative refraction in the optical
experimental results show strong negative refraction in the optical this could be very useful for astronomical imaging Lezec et al report n ~ -5 negative refraction synthetic material that works in the optical (~ 500 nm) over a respectable bandwidth (~ 50 nm) (website and link here). Negative…