Gadgets and technology

Invisibility

When talking about invisibility, the first thing we can think of are Hollow man or something from the James Bond movies. Invisibility is no longer impossible as scientist have figure out a way that would one day make objects invisible. With the use of meta material, light can be bend around the object allowing light to pass through as if the object is not there. Researchers from Duke University have proven that objects can be invisible by using metamaterial as the shield. However it is not the true invisibily as it is a two dimensions cloaking and at microwave frequencies only. Visible light that human and animal perceive are at a much higher frequencies.

Hence Allan Greenleaf and his collegue from the University of Rochester have figure out a way to build a device which is able to make objects travelling through the device invisible. The device would cloak in three dimensions. It is like a electromagnetic wormhole which disconnect the object in the cylinder from the outside world electromagnetically. It would render the frequencies of light and causes it to blend into the surrounding. However the range of frequencies the device can render depends on what metamaterials have been produced. Thus the range of frequencies is limited.

It would still be useful in various application such as to neutralize the magnetic fields produced by MRI machine.

However the development of the device would still be a thing decades from now. But it has form a basis for the invisibilty cloak.

Resource:

photo courtesy of

Matti Lassas, Helsinki University of Technology

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/10/071023-invisible-wormholes.html