The Invisible Man: A scientific breakthrough

Today, your eyes might not deceive you. But soon, they very well might.

Some extremely clever people at Cal (the one at Berkeley) have created a material that can control the direction in which visible light travels.

Apparently, this mystery material, some details of which might be revealed in Science and Nature magazines this week (People and OK weren't interested), deflects light around an object as perceived by an insouciant eye.

"In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock," the leader of the Cal researchers, Xiang Zhang, told London's Times newspaper.

(Credit: CC dogbomb)

In essence, you are looking at, say, the Empire State Building or a John Malkovich-piloted Boeing 747 full of nasty missiles. If these objects are coated with the material, your eyes will see light from behind them, hence creating the illusion that the object in question simply isn't there. I know that there are terrible consequences that may leap to mind in these examples.

For the more technically-minded amongst you, I can tell you that the material the scientists created had to have elements engineered to within 0.00000066 of a meter. This appears to be in a realm that might make wafers suddenly feel ridiculously overweight.

For the rest of us humans, the first twitch of the imagination goes towards whether we would prefer ourselves to be able to disappear. (We would have to calculate distance very carefully, as the material would not mask our body odors, for example. And, if we allowed people too close, they might just bump into us all the time. This is one of the Invisible Man's dilemmas in movies and TV shows.)

However, one's second twitch would be to consider whether there are other things we would very much like to pretend don't exist. Because they are, quite simply, not good for the eyes and, therefore, the environment.

My list would include Buckingham Palace, the Hotel Gansevoort in New York, the whole of Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, most of Warsaw (especially the sky), La Guardia Airport and perhaps even Michael Jackson and Newt Gingrich.

What would your list look like?

[abutorsam007]

Ultimate..........Its Great to Notice Such An Innnovation......Lets See How's It Utilized....

[TomMariner]

Is it April 1?

[codetiger]

Ah, the hallow man is here...

[JerBear007]

You got to love science. However, based upon how I interpreted the article, mainly the section saying "the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock". If a material did exist that could curve light waves around a given object, I am guessing that this ability would exist at any given surface point on the material, and that the exit point would be on the opposite side of the entry point, per the analogy given. If that is the case, then wouldn't the observer still see the cloaked object, just from their opposite side? Or am I missing something?

[jgee9]

The analogy "curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock" does work but needs explanation. An object can be seen only when light flows into the eye. That is, you can not see light flowing away from you. If you are situated at the "opposite side", you will not see the light flowing away. Instead, you would see any light flowing towards you, which would also flow around and hide the object. In this respect, the analogy is not very good.

[residentchiphead]

What is Cal? Are you making the assumption that everyone knows what you mean?

Are you talking about the University of Southern California Berkley Campus? Why do I have to guess? It's a news article right? I'm not on the blog section am I?

Do give me the "ah, duh!" thing either. Unless you live there, Cal doesn't mean squat to the rest of us.

[motremper]

Cal is the common way to refer to the University of California's primary and oldest campus, in Berkeley. If anybody from Cal hears you refer to them as "University of Southern California Berkley Campus," they would not be happy. USC is in fact a private university and the biggest rival of Cal. Berkeley is only one of 10 campuses, but as I said is the flagship and oldest campus, hence it has been simply referred to as Cal for a long time.

[ajr13]

residentchiphead -- if you are unable to infer what "Cal" is from the article, I find it hard to believe you would be able to understand the rest of the content of the article -- and I'm not from "there" yet I know what it is ...

[VanLady]

I am with residentchiphead on this. Abbreviations should never be used in a news article. This practice does not inform the people that do not know, therefore it is no longer a news story, it is a friend talking to a friend, blog-style. I guessed University of California, not Cal-Tech as a commentor below so kindly informs us. News should never utilize abbreviations, it leaves far too much margin for misunderstanding and misleading the truth.
As for the invisibility technology, lets just hope it never falls to the wrong hands. Awesome techonology, potentially very dangerous.

[the_inventor]

I wrote an article ten years ago stating invisibility using ferroelectrics as metamaterials
provided optical light path around object.

Dr. Zhang wants to claim as originator, well that is typically California inventing.

[byocomputer]

Ok the_inventor - did Al Gore help you out with that?

[shawnshine]

Newt? come on! I really tried to think of something funny to say, but "I like Newt!" was the only I could come up with! McCain '08!

[cloud9ine]

Cal usually refers to Cal-Tech in Pasadena. UCB or Berkeley is enough.

[llanos5000]

Cal refers to University of California, Berkeley.