Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Engage the Cloaking Device!

Researchers at Berkley have created a mesh using nano fibers that actually bends light around it. This is essentially the 'cloaking' technology from star trek.

The reason we can see things is because light bounces off of them. Typically light from behind an object is blocked by that object. This material bends the light around the object so that it can be seen from the front side. So instead of seeing a painting on a wall, you would see the wall behind the painting. The light never hits the painting to be reflected and the light from the wall gets refracted around to the front of the painting. Effectively rendering the painting invisible.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7553061.stm

Can you imagine if people put these on their cars?

1 comment:

Amanda said...

I understand the concept, but thinking about it makes my brain hurt...