in which science rocks

Ever wanted a cloak of invisibility? One could be coming soon! Check it out:

The keys are special manmade materials, unlike any in nature or the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. These materials are intended to steer light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation around an object, rendering it as invisible as something tucked into a hole in space.

“Is it science fiction? Well, it’s theory and that already is not science fiction. It’s theoretically possible to do all these Harry Potter things, but what’s standing in the way is our engineering capabilities,” said John Pendry, a physicist at the Imperial College London.

[...]

“This is very interesting science and a very interesting idea and it is supported on a great mathematical and physical basis,” said Nader Engheta, a professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Engheta has done his own work on invisibility using novel materials called metamaterials.

From what I gather, metamaterials can cause light to bend “the wrong way” or negatively.

A cloak made of those materials, with a structure designed down to the submicroscopic scale, would neither reflect light nor cast a shadow.

Instead, like a river streaming around a smooth boulder, light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation would strike the cloak and simply flow around it, continuing on as if it never bumped up against an obstacle. That would give an onlooker the apparent ability to peer right through the cloak, with everything tucked inside concealed from view.

How cool is that?! Such a cloak is not yet available but “early versions that could mask microwaves and other forms of electromagnetic radiation could be as close as 18 months away” with the promise that “we will have a cloak after not too long”.

I suppose this gives fundies yet another reason to be scared of science. Science doesn’t just “hate god”, it creates the devil’s magic!




(Beware the vanishing crosspost)