Slashdot Mirror
First Black Hole For Light Created On Earth
An anonymous reader writes "An electromagnetic 'black hole' that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time. The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity. A theoretical design for a table-top black hole to trap light was proposed in a paper published earlier this year by Evgenii Narimanov and Alexander Kildishev of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Their idea was to mimic the properties of a cosmological black hole, whose intense gravity bends the surrounding space-time, causing any nearby matter or radiation to follow the warped space-time and spiral inwards."
had been around for ages...
That sucks ...
This really sucks.
They need to stop calling it a black hole or the ignorant masses will decide it's going to end the world.
The summary is word for word the first three paragraphs in the article. The titles are also the same. Dangerous ground to tread on, CmdrTaco.
My work here is dung.
I do realize this is not a "real" black hole and is just a marketing term, but it would seem to me that the device very likely takes much ore energy to power than it can collect. After all this is not some ACME super vacuum... it can only redirect the light that is actually passing through it's field range. The only way to extend the field would be to increase power consumption, and that's not linear.
So... really that's cute... a virtual parabolic mirror, that requires energy. nifty.
I'm sure there will be a better use for this somewhere, but it won't be for solar energy collection.
tha the theory about the existence of dark suckers is true!
...only this one sucks in light!!!
If it now works at microwave frequencies, technically it just sucks in microwaves and not light?
If you want to call it something else than a microwave, call it electromagnetic radiation.
This will be the final slashdotting.
Does this mean perhaps actual black holes are not all singularities after all?
Just food for thought...
(captya agitator, appropriate)
"Hello, my black hole is red this morning?" "Hello, I've lost my black hole and the the room it was in is missing too?" ....and the responses...
"Sir, could you please stick your head in the black hold to see if it's working? Yup, just go ahead....little further..."
Maybe it's because I happen to be an experimentalist (and we're always at odds with the theorists/ computer simulation/ computational analysis groups) but shouldn't Cui and Cheng's names be attached with the summary? I mean, having the idea for a box that won't let light escape is great, but actually building it is far more impressive to me.
I don't think HeeChee references are that obscure.
Congress has dismissed the "first" claims of the University by stating that they have been creating giant sucking black holes, such at the recent "Stimulus Bill", for over 200 years now. They hope to create an economy-crushing Black Hole by the end of the year that should eclipse anything the Universities have created.
--
Obama, Obama, Pants On Fire!
Didn't these guys pay attention to the media? It's the Large Hadron Accelerator that is supposed to create the Earth-destroying black hole...
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
This might very well be the Last Post...
Prepare for unforeseen consequences....
I THINK ITS QUITE OVIOUS that he wasn't trying to pass off those words as his own. Apologies to TFA.
But I have definite issues with the last paragraph of the article
The article gives no indication that light passing near the device will get sucked into it, but only that all light hitting the device gets sucked into the center. So instead of requiring those huge parabolic mirrors, you'll instead require these huge cylindrical structures. Would still have a nice advantage in that no tracking or steering devices would be required since light hitting it from any side gets "sucked in", but it would still require a considerable amount of real estate to deploy assuming that they can both scale it down (to handle visible light) and scale it up (to make the amount of light absorbed represent a non-trivial amount of power).
The interesting thing to me is that the molecule plants use for photosynthesis has some spiral-like structures. Those could be guiding visible light in the same way.
Not that that helps solar power's number one problem, which is energy storage.
Call me paranoid but in the current increasingly litigious zeitgeist, could the Purdue team just be trying to claim originality when faced with the achievements of a competing team? (or not? just curious, given the fairly similar timelines).
Maybe we could use this to absorb any Gamma Ray Bursts that happen to come our way.
Disclaimer: didn't read TFA
#define true false
i wonder if they checked for gravity/mass/time disturbances?
The first Black Hole invented by man is called Government.
The nincompoops who campaigned against the LHC because of its mythical ability to create black holes will be out in force!
My web domain.
This could easily be the next smoke rounds. Imagine being able to block light past specific points on a battlefield. You could effectively blind the enemy in darkness, or create soft cover for your movements. It would also absorb laser tracking and targeting devices, leaving many modern weapons systems moot.
Make no mistake about it, this is a very important technology for the battle field.
Tell me it has Ten Chevrons around it and THEN I'll be impressed.
There is a Universal Life Value Check it
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turn my collar to the cold and damp
Narimanov and Kildishev reasoned that it should be possible to build a device that makes light curve inwards towards its centre in a similar way. They calculated that this could be done by a cylindrical structure consisting of a central core surrounded by a shell of concentric rings.
Superficially, sounds kind of like a Fresnel lens.
Huh? The description you quote seems like a pretty reasonable qualitative description of an astrophysical black hole to me. Black holes have a region of capture orbits outside the horizon, where nearby matter spirals inwards.
Not that astrophysical black holes have anything whatsoever to do with the electromagnetic devices referred to in the article, of course.
There's nothing to see.
Ha! I crack myself up.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
Scientists and engineers are trying to emulate that trick by designing materials that could constitute the next-next (or next-next-next) generation of stealth. Some of their ideas sound like they sprang from the imaginations of Gene Roddenberry or J.K. Rowling, with phrases like “cloaking device” and “invisibility carpet” popping up as frequently in academic papers as in television scripts and books for kids. Other ideas are more realistic, as researchers devise ways to change an aircraft’s color and blur its outline, confusing the bad guys enough to make them shoot in the wrong direction.
Wasn't everyone taught by a science teacher at some point that science doesn't suck?
It seems tremendously unlikely that this thing would be cheaper than what it aims to replace. There could possibly be a use for it in certain unusual situations - say, providing solar power to a spacecraft in the outer solar system. You might be able to get sufficient power without having to loft a giant mirror into space. But even in this case, it seems like the standard radiothermal generators would be a better choice.
and she's buying the stairway to heaven ...
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
... it founders on the usual issue - cost effectiveness. Smoke rounds already do this job very well, and they're bound to be a lot cheaper. They're also a lot easier to emplace (can you imagine firing one of these "black hole" deals out of an artillery piece, and having it get to its destination intact?). I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this to show up on the battlefield.
.
This black hole that sucks up invisible light would go _great_ with the emperor's new clothes. ;)
Rise and shine Mr.Freeman. Rise, and shine.
Hey, Military, guess what, this device could be turned in to a light grenade.
Yeah, like that thing out of Starga.. okay seriously, i'm beginning to think aliens are involved somehow.
Make tiny black holes with an event horizon of say 1 foot. Then we have the ultimate trashcan. We can dump nuclear wast in it and nothing will come out except for perhaps according to some theories radiation. Which we cannot see or feel so there forth it must be harmless.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I live in Minnesota, and would like to go camping sometimes.
as long as the humpback whales are still here, we're safe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_IV:_The_Voyage_Home
let's just hope no all powerful easily angered cetacean loving aliens notice these missing, oops:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiji#Current_status
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Read TFA. Second, does anyone have a link for the wavelengths of EM radiation that reach the surface of the Earth? The article talks about making the black hole sensitive to light (presumably visible), but is that really necessary? Is the intensity of visible light much higher than other wavelengths. Of course this could simply be a case for making the article more layman friendly.
If this does bend space-time, then it could be used for Alcubierre drive. I wonder if it can nullify gravity too.
It is pity, that the wish for fame overshadows scientific correctness. Calling this "device" a black hole is like calling a bicycle a space shuttle, because both have wheels. If something is black in certain wavelength, does not mean it is a black-hole.
Not that it is not significant, it surely is, but it is more like a black microwave paint discovery.
If the light will be sucked in completely, then how will the electricity leave the "black-hole"? Won't it be trapped inside it as well?
Red matter, I bet.
OK, black bodies give off radiation, black holes give off radiation, what are these called and do they give off radiation?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
It's a lens. It only affects light (electromagnetic radiation).
It's a lens, specifically, that bends light into a spiral path that ends in the middle of the lens. It could presumably be used to amplify light into a small point. The same small point, regardless of the way the light strikes the surface of the lens, making it potentially useful for solid-state light gathering.
I hope they make consumer models of this soon.
Now is only the could work in Cold Fusion and Death Panels!
Cold fusion is what happens when two ice cubes stick together.
Free Martian Whores!
and people thought entropy could never be reversed... how could there be a big bang and no big gnab?
The Chinese paper refers to effectiveness at 18GHz, which just so happens to be in the "K" band of radar frequencies. You know, the one police like to use.
So all these guys need to do is make a dashboard- or grille-mounted radar absorber to obsolete the radar detector and they'll be so rich they'll forget their ultimate goal of destroying the world or whatever.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Does it come in color other than black?
Huh? The description you quote seems like a pretty reasonable qualitative description of an astrophysical black hole to me
Well, it might sound reasonable to you, but it is not. Gravity does not bend spacetime. The bending of space time is gravity. Mass bends spacetime (well, the energy momentum tensor "bends" spacetime, but let's not get too technical). Gravity is just a fictional force we made up to account for the fact that the geodesics are no longer straight lines, as a result of spacetime being "bent" by mass.
I wonder if they will ever be able to create more energy than it takes to harvest it. Not an easy task.
Capture orbits have to do with loss of energy by way of gravitational radiation. Gravity around a black hole is just like gravity anywhere else. They do not magically suck things in.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Are we looking at the next generation of stealth technology?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
No, wait.
As far as I understand, given that there's no invisibility cloaks working for those frequency and that this is a variation on these device, I doubt the experimenter's claim that they'll be able to build an optical black hole soon..
You sir are wrong!
This electromagnetic radiation either generates a photopositive reaction or it does not.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
Charlie Murphy: Damnit, Rick James, I told you to stop calling me that.
The enemies of Democracy are
Couldn't this be used in space to absorb radiation and protect spaceship or outposts? I would assume i'd be completely dark underneath the device, but the radiation could be reused to generate electricity and power regular lights....
I'm surprised there haven't been any "sounds like my ex-wife" jokes yet.
I think you'll find this interesting..
Dark Suckers
Bell Labs Proves Existence of Dark Suckers
For years it has been believed that electric bulbs emitted light. However,
recent information from Bell Labs has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs
don't emit light, they suck dark. Thus they now call these bulbs dark
suckers. The dark sucker theory, according to a Bell Labs spokesperson,
proves the existence of dark, that dark has mass heavier than that of
light, and that dark is faster than light.
The basis of the dark sucker theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. Take
for example, the dark suckers in the room where you are. There is less dark
right next to them than there is elsewhere. The larger the dark sucker, the
greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark suckers in a parking lot have a
much greater capacity than the ones in this room. As with all things, dark
suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer
suck. This is proven by the black spot on a full dark sucker. A candle is a
primitive dark sucker. lA new candle has a white wick. You will notice that
after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark which
has been sucked into it. If you hold a pencil next to the wick of an
operating candle, the tip will turn black because it got in the path of the
dark flowing into the candle.
Unfortunately, these primitive dark suckers have a very limited range.
There are also portable dark suckers. The bulbs in these can't handle all
of the dark by themselves, and must be aided by a dark storage unit. When
the dark storage unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before
the portable dark sucker can operate again.
Dark has mass. When dark goes into a dark sucker, friction from this mass
generates heat. Thus it is not wise to touch an operating dark sucker.
Candles present a special problem, as the dark must travel in the solid
wick instead of through glass. This generates a great amount of heat. Thus
it can be very dangerous to touch an operating candle. Dark is also heavier
than light. If you swim deeper and deeper, you notice it gets slowly darker
and darker. When you reach a depth of approximately fifty feet, you are in
total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the
lake and the lighter light floats to the top. The immense power of dark can
be utilized to mans advantage. We can collect the dark that has settled to
the bottom of lakes and push it through turbines, which generate
electricity and help push it to the ocean where it may be safely stored.
Prior to turbines, it was much more difficult to get dark from the rivers
and lakes to the ocean. The Indians recognized this problem, and tried to
solve it. When on a river in a canoe travelling in the same direction as
the flow of the dark, they paddled slowly, so as not to stop the flow of
dark, but when they traveled against the flow of dark, they paddled quickly
so as to help push the dark along its way.
Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand
in an illuminated room in front of a closed, dark closet, then slowly open
the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet, but since
the dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the
closet.
In conclusion, Bell Labs stated that dark suckers make all our lives much
easier. So the next time you look at an electric bulb remember that it is
indeed a dark sucker.
Author Unknown
https://www.msu.edu/user/dynicrai/physics/dark.htm
Am I the only one thinking about actual Microwave oven applications? A vast majority of microwave ovens leak radiation at levels that can be dangerous to humans [www.radiationtalk.com], so why not make a fortune selling 'safe' microwave ovens with doors lined with this meta-material? (Apart from making all that money on destructive applications, of course).
Doesn't work ... Power is on ... No light from projector ... Oh Shit!
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
So you can funnel in 100% of photons with it. You still have to convert them to electricty somehow so really it's just a really good light focuser for solar panels. The funny thing is, there are already solar panel focusers or light amplifiers or concentrators or whatever they're called that, by area, can do like 3:1 and if this black hole is a square foot of total surface area, it gets a square foot of light at 1:1 and that's it. You'd actually need to attach a mirror or lense focuser to funnel light into the black hole.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
i was just trying to riff on his joke. i failed i guess if you felt the need to correct me more than just laugh, ah well
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
We are on the verge of having true DEDs (Dark Emitting Diodes)
"Your puny", "Don't be shy" and "He just wants"?
Yeah, they're taken.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Does anybody think this might eventually be a bad thing? I mean if it sucks in light whats to stop somebody from sticking their hand in it to see what it feels like.
"How much more black could it be? None. None more black."
... the first Black Hole for emotions. I know. I dated her back in high school.
is it an african american hole then?
ORLY?
That's completely untrue. Capture orbits exist for black holes without considering gravitational radiation or other backreaction. They're present in the fully conservative system. This is not Newtonian physics.
At least it's not the ultimate NIMBY - a Nuclear Black Hole.
OK, I'm a fogy. I remember a Munsters episode where Grandpa Munster had invented a "black light" which made the room dark when it was turned on. It was funny; guess you had to be there...
DO NOT WANT
To put it bluntly to the masses, this, in essence, is a Black thing. It is a Black thing that is SO Black, the Sheer Blackness of it could power our homes in the future.
Yes, our homes could LITERALLY be powered by Darkness in the future. Rock on.
Coming soon to a RadioShack near you
So it's like a dark bulb right?
For when it's too bright out?