Scientists at UC Berkeley have developed a foldable, incredibly thin invisibility cloak that can wrap around microscopic objects of any shape and make them undetectable in the visible spectrum. In its current form, the technology could be useful in optical computing or in shrouding secret microelectronic components from prying eyes, but according to the researchers involved, it could also be scaled up in size with relative ease.
Objects are visible to us because a small portion of the light that hits them is scattered in the direction of our retinas. Invisibility cloaks can make objects disappear from sight by exploiting the unusual optical properties of so-calledmetamaterials. These special man-made compounds can manipulate light in unique ways to guide it around the surface of the cloak, so that no light is reflected from it or the object it’s shielding.
via Gizmag
Image: Berkeley Lab
