Ever wanted to be able to just disappear? Was invisibility one of your favorite super powers? Well, this may be more future than fiction. Scientists have just demonstrated a rudimentary example of how to create an invisibility cloak. How you may ask? Well, great question, I will try to explain.

David Schurig and David Smith from Duke University, along with a slew of other colleagues, have designed concentric rings of a composite of metal and wires embedded in a fiberglass structure. The rings disrupt the way light normally behaves causing a reduction in reflections and shadows, and these two components are the building blocks of an invisibility cloak. The way it works is the outer ring focuses light towards the inner ring, and then helps the light bend around the inner ring like a stream around a river rock.

Although at the moment, the “light” that they were using was microwave radiation, the use of microwave’s long wave structure eliminates some of the problems with Einstein’s speed barrier for light. Considering that the wavelength size of light doing the most “bending” around the object would either have to be the same size as the object, or the light will inevitably arrive later than the other surrounding light. This poses no problem for stationary cloaking, but for objects that are going to move, it will create a major problem since you will see the light closest to the object moments after the light that does not have to travel around the cloaked object.




Remember the classic movie Predator with Arnold ShwenzenIHaveNoClueHowToSpellThis? Well, the way the alien disrupted the light was kind of like looking through water when he moved, becoming more “visible”. That is probably pretty close to the real limitations of this technology. The only way around this would be for the light to speed up when it bends around the object violating the major rule of luxons — which are particles, like photons, that cannot go slower nor faster than the speed of light.

Bottom line, this technology is definitely proving to be a real viable science. Just don’t go expecting a invisibility cloak of your own — at least not anytime soon.