Science closing in on cloak of invisibility

OK - this should probably go under the heading of "Are you F(*&^(*&^G kidding me?". And not because scientists at Duke are taking the ol' Dungeons & Dragons thing 'one toke over the line'. Hell No - Check out the last line for who is funding this research, and thereby gaining the knowledge of how it works. Yeah - that's what we need, the Chineese military to have a bunch of invisible aircraft, ships, tanks, and Ninja's. Oh, wait - they're probably just interrested in it for the sake of science. Yeah - right... Well, as long as it doesn't fall in the hands of the Terrorizers, right?

Science closing in on cloak of invisibility
Thu Jan 15, 7:11 pm ET

WASHINGTON – They can't match Harry Potter yet, but scientists are moving closer to creating a real cloak of invisibility. Researchers at Duke University, who developed a material that can "cloak" an item from detection by microwaves, report that they have expanded the number of wavelengths they can block.

Last August the team reported they had developed so-called metamaterials that could deflect microwaves around a three-dimensional object, essentially making it invisible to the waves.

The system works like a mirage, where heat causes the bending of light rays and cloaks the road ahead behind an image of the sky.

The researchers report in Thursday's edition of the journal Science that they have developed a series of mathematical commands to guide the development of more types of metamaterials to cloak objects from an increasing range of electromagnetic waves.

"The new device can cloak a much wider spectrum of waves — nearly limitless — and will scale far more easily to infrared and visible light. The approach we used should help us expand and improve our abilities to cloak different types of waves," senior researcher David R. Smith said in a statement.

The new cloak is made up of more than 10,000 individual pieces of fiberglass arranged in parallel rows. The mathematical formulas are used to determine the shape and placement of each piece to deflect the electromagnetic waves.

The research was supported by Raytheon Missile Systems, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, InnovateHan Technology, the National Science Foundation of China, the National Basic Research Program of China and National Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China.