SCIENTISTS have stumbled on a material that could turn science fiction into reality – a material that makes objects invisible.
Ever since the author HG Wells' novella of 1897, The Invisible Man, the story of a scientist rendered invisible by a potion, researchers have been intrigued by the notion of invisibility.
Now scientists at the University of California, Berkeley
have engineered a material that for the first time can bend light around three dimensional objects making them "disappear."
The research – funded by the American military – paves the way for stealth tanks, aircraft and even warships that can disappear from enemy soldiers' sight.
The new system works like water flowing around a rock, the researchers said.
Because light is not absorbed or reflected by the object, a person only sees the light from behind it – rendering the object invisible.
Scientists artificially engineered "fishnet" materials that had "negative refractive" properties.
Xiang Zhang, the lead researcher, said: "In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river around a rock."
The team's work follows an earlier project at Imperial College, London, that achieved similar results with microwaves.
Like light, these are a form of electromagnetic radiation but their longer wavelength makes them far easier to manipulate. Achieving the same effect with visible light is a big advance, the researchers said.
