Beam Me Up Scotty - Cloaking Technology One Step Closer to Reality
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have engineered three-dimensional metamaterials that can reverse the natural direction of visible light, which could one day lead to an invisibility device. The material is composed of parallel nanowires embedded inside porous aluminum oxide. As visible light passes through the material, it is bent backwards in a phenomenon known as negative refraction. While the researchers welcome these new developments in metamaterials at optical wavelengths, they also caution that they are still far off from invisibility cloaks and other applications that may capture the imagination.
Comments:
This technology opens the possibility for electron telescopes. The limitations of visible astronomy are still those imposed by the eye's iris and pupil. Electronic amplification has - until now - hit limitations that can't match the image processing capabilities of human eye and brain.<br><br>Our collective desire is to cover our entire pupil with light from 1x to 2000x; out hope is that such can be done through that little window in our eyes. <br><br>While cloaking technology may be a military windfall, it may also be a windfall for every aspect of astronomy.
