'Antimagnet' Cloak Hides Objects From Magnetic Fields

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'Antimagnet' Cloak Hides Objects From Magnetic Fields

Posted by Soulskill on Friday March 23, 2012 @02:57AM from the don't-let-ian-mckellan-get-his-hands-on-this dept.

ananyo writes "Researchers have made a cloak that can hide objects from static magnetic fields, realizing a theoretical prediction they made last year. This 'antimagnet' could have medical applications, but could also be used to subvert airport security. The cloak's interior is lined with turns of tape made from a high-temperature superconductor. Superconductors repel magnetic fields, so any magnetic field enclosed within a superconductor would be undetectable from outside. But the superconductor itself would still perturb an external magnetic field, so the researchers coated its external side with an ordinary ferromagnet. The superconductor tries to repel external field lines, whereas the ferromagnet tries to draw them in — together, the two layers cancel each other out (abstract)."

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Airport security? by hpa · 2012-03-23 03:02 · Score: 5, Funny

"Hey, mind if I take in this superconductor cooler through the checkpoint?"
1. Re:Airport security? by tylerni7 · 2012-03-23 03:08 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  No look, this is perfect. We convince DHS that the terrorists are trying to develop room temperature superconductors to subvert metal detectors and security checkpoints.
  
  Then, clearly the solution is for DHS to start giving obscene amounts of money to physicists in the USA to develop the technology first! It's pretty much a win-win-win situation.
2. Re:Airport security? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-23 03:09 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Amazing isn't it? Rea searchers make a breakthrough in practical physics, and all anyone can think about is terrorists!
  
  Be afraid people! There could be one under your bed right now!
Tinfoil hat replacement by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-23 03:08 · Score: 5, Funny

Finally, a tinfoil hat replacement. Everyone knows that some aliens use magnets and not EM waves.
High temperature superconductor, misleading by mark-t · 2012-03-23 03:14 · Score: 4, Informative

Because it's not "high temperature" in any sense that would be understood by the term.
It's called high temperature because it's significantly hotter than temperatures where superconductivity occurs in ordinary metals (around 30K). But even the highest temperature at which superconductivity has ever been observed is still freakin' cold... over a hundred degrees below 0
Until room temperature superconductivity is discovered (an enormous breakthrough in physics that would have countless applications), nothing's getting by airport security with this mechanism.

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File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Protect magnetic storage? by danaris · 2012-03-23 03:22 · Score: 4, Insightful

So...is this something that could someday be used to protect magnetic storage media from accidental (or even deliberate) exposure to magnetic fields?
Dan Aris

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Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Re:No problem for airport security by jdgeorge · 2012-03-23 03:27 · Score: 4, Insightful

But now, why are people so concerned about airport security anyway? The invention has no relation to it.
They're not really concerned with airport security. Slashdotters desperately crave upward moderation. Posting a clever remark related to a popular meme is the easiest way to satisfy that desire.