Update: The World's First Invisibility Cloak

In our October issue, we reported on the theoretical and practical work being done to make the fantasy of invisibility a reality [read the article online here]. Yesterday one of those teams of researchers—a Duke University group led by David Smith—announced that they had demonstrated the world’s first working invisibility cloak. And unlike other “cloaks,” which use images projected onto the surface of the item to be hidden, Smith’s actually bends light around the object, making the light behave as if the object isn’t even there.

The cloak, which is less than five inches long, is a synthetic structure composed of copper rings and wires placed onto sheets of fiberglass. Its applicability is limited: It works for only two dimensions and only against a microwave beam. The technology to create an invisibility cloak for regular light, which is made of many different wavelengths, is still decades away. See a video of the new cloak here. —Abby Seiff

Related:
The First Invisibility Shield

Comments

[Andre]

Can anyone say UFO technology!?

[nathan funke]

Well I don't know about UFO technology, it seems like if we had obtained some alien hardware the government wouldnt be having Duke universory lead their research.
I do thinkhowever, that it could have interesting implications for space travel. Since one of the biggest concerns for long term missions is radiation exposure, I wonder if this technology could be used as a type of radiation shielding. Also, could it be manufactured to keep radiation inside a designated area? seemingly endlessly swirling around inside instead of leaking out, acting as a containment field? Invisibility sounds cool and all but I think this technology could have much more useful applications.

[Tim Keys]

Reading Andre and Nathan's posts about UFO technology made me think about the UFO time travel theory that this site presents: http://www.terrestrialextras.com/
The cloaking technology that Duke University is developing may explain how these "terrestrial extras" attempt to obscure their visits to the past.