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Duke University Creates Perfect, Centimeter-scale Invisibility Cloak
MrSeb writes "Scientists at Duke University have created the first invisibility cloak that perfectly hides centimeter-scale objects. While invisibility cloaks have been created before, they have all reflected some of the incident light, ruining the illusion. In this case, the incident light is perfectly channeled around the object, creating perfect invisibility. There are some caveats, of course. For now, the Duke invisibility cloak only works with microwave radiation — and perhaps more importantly, the cloak is unidirectional (it only provides invisibility from one very specific direction). The big news here, though, is that it is even possible to create an invisibility cloak of any description. It is now just a matter of time before visible-light, omnidirectional invisibility cloaks are created."
I always hoped they would work on Warp technology first....
Also, does this mean we are the Romulans....
I'll believe it when I see it.
"It is now just a matter of time before visible-light, omnidirectional invisibility cloaks are created."
Wow. Just Wow. Just because we sent men to the moon, it does not mean that we'll be traveling to other galaxies soon.
Unless of course by "just a matter of time", they mean like a hundred thousand years.
I think someone invented that long ago... Have you ever dropped an smt component on carpet? I have it just disappears.
Surely it's gotta have a tailpipe...
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
now all we need to do is drag Stuart Little out of rehab (child stars... what more needs to be said?), and get him trained up over in Langley. With this invisible cloak, we can take rodint (rodent intelligence) to the next level.
Can someone look up cat populations in Iran at CIA's World Fact Book?
My Harry Potter cosplay will be complete! Win!
I have the hiccups.
One direction like one exact angle of incidence. Multiple cloaks won't help because you need an infinite number of them, or at least you need them per angle based on the bandwidth of microwave and the radius of the cloak--meaning a lot. Too much. It's a huge leap from "We've gotten elevators to work by using a rope and pully and waterwheel" to "soon we'll be able to lift things into space by anti-gravity".
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It has always been an internal moral compass that guides us. Few people do not commit murder or any other crime because of the fear of law enforcement.
The question becomes, does that moral compass derive from superstitious psuedo-belief in some omniscient power, government instilled fears, or a true sense of what is the path of the least harm to the fewest numbers of others?
If I really want to kill someone, or rob them, or rape them, I will find a way to do it, law and others be dammed. It simply becomes a matter of proper planning and (ahem) execution.
The invention of the knife did not 'legalize' murder, neither did the invention of the gun, or the fist for that matter. What legalizes it is our own mind and definition of moral. Regardless of the tools used.
Law enforcement, like much religion, is simply a fear mongering device used to direct the thoughtless masses.
Silence is a state of mime.
If someone ever does produce an actual cloak of invisibility, we're going to have a huge problem as
In the good olde days on /. this would have rapidly devolved into "how are 5000 nerds wearing invisibility cloaks all going to simultaneously fit in the 12 person college cheerleaders girls shower room and what happens when their crappy homemade wiring and/or ARDWEEEEEEEEENO microcontroller shorts out because of the shower water?" but no, we have to have whacky hollywood movie plots about murder.
Insider trading is a much more fun example. What did the corporate board really talk about? And how much can you blackmail them?
For better or worse, circumstantial evidence seems enough to convict. Also invisibility seems to have nothing to do with DNA samples, motives, etc. I'm not anticipating a serious murder problem.
More realistically, I predict that if invisibility cloaks are perfected, about 30 seconds later every college cheerleader girls locker room is going to have a grid of what looks like spiders webs hanging from the ceiling. Those icky 70s bead curtains may make a comeback. Outside of the ladies gym showers, in "secured" areas, I predict the "spiders" will involve conductive, energized thread that's only deactivated when my NFC RFID is marked as approved. Also you'd be surprised what someone could do with semi-toxic gasses if you really wanted. I would not want to try to rob a bank vault after some fairly obvious countermeasures are deployed.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Perfect /'perfikt/
adj.
Having all the parts and qualities that are needed or wanted, an no flaws or weaknesses.
If there are caveats, it's not perfect. Don't slap false labels on things to make them sound more impressive. Call it what it is.
The idea that we're "soon" to have invisibility cloaks that are both omni-directional *and* handle visible light is an unfounded one. True, maybe the underlying foundations are set well and the science is understood. But here's the issue: metamaterials ("invisibility cloaks" as a rule, fall into this category since they're properties are determined by the structure of the materials - not the material itself) have specific patterns in the structure. Microwave radiation has a wavelength between 1 mm and 1 m. Visible light has a wavelength of 390 to 750 nm. We are talking about four orders of magnitude.
The structure of the metamaterial needed to handle visible light is going to be out of our reach for quite some time until we can design a better way of handling structural details on the nanoscale and beyond (right now, the best methods are self assembled, and those methods usually aren't good for the massive complexity you'd desire).
I already perfected a centimeter scale invisibility cloak which works in visible light, but is unidirectional.
It involves using a digital camera, a printer, one square centimeter of paper and a bit of tape. Naturally, there are some limitations to where it can be used, but those are just details for the engineers to deal with.
Yes, the reflections being the thing that prevented previous version from being considered "perfect" cloaking devices. But don't let my logic stop you from denouncing this as a let-down...
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The vast majority of murders today don't have any eye witnesses, and yet many of those cases still get solved and the perpetrator caught. Furthermore, it really isn't hard to sneak out behind someone and shoot someone today, without even being seen by the victim. So an invisibility cloak will only make it slightly easier to kill someone, and won't make it any harder to catch them. Not much of a game changer.