Is the Invisible Man Sitting Right Next to You?

It’s not sci-fi any more. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have developed a material that can bend visible light around objects. It just means that if you’re wearing a cloak made out of that material, light waves would curve around your cloak and an observer would see the light from behind you, making you disappear.

This range of material that can control light’s direction of travel are known as “meta-materials” and have the power to “grab” electromagnetic radiation and deflect it smoothly. They are capable of manipulating matter at atomic and molecule levels, and have been created with nano-scale engineering. The researchers say they constructed a material whose elements were engineered to a confounding scale of within about 0.00000066 of a metre (like 0.0000001 of an inch).

Wonder if you can see yourself? I mean, how would you know if your hair styling is right? Then again, that shouldn’t matter. Hmmm. And oh no, I don’t think you can’t find it at Wal-Mart, not yet.

Now, how does it work again?

“In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock,” explains Xiang Zhang, chief researcher. And lo, you–or the objects–are ‘invisible’.

Still don’t believe it? Come on, now–can you see the picture of the Niagara Falls above?

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