Science closing in on cloak of invisibility

Friday 16th January, 06:26 AM JST

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Sarge at 07:06 PM JST - 16th January

Nori - That's what you think. The Federation stole it from the Romulans!
electric2004 at 07:56 PM JST - 16th January

Well, the idea is interesting. Maybe it might be possible with a well-aligned array of glass-fibers to cloak part of the visible spectrum. The formulas in

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/314/5801/977.pdf

are not so difficult. Maybe an intelligent array of mirrors (in some sense equivalent to glass-fibers) might do the trick. The more I think about it - in 2 dimensions it is easy to cloak a 1-dimensional object. And in 3 dimensions it is easy to hide a 2-dimensional object. Then to hide a 3 dimensional object (in space) a 4-dimensional structure is necessary. So far, 4-dimensional objects (in space) have not yet been build (only in science fiction), so probably the way to go is to transform a fractal geometry from a 2 dimensional surface to a 3-dimensional volume. However, so far I have seen only 2-dimensional fractals ... might be interesting to think about.
Ke11iente at 01:05 AM JST - 17th January

Well, they're making progress. When the first stories about these experiments were published more than a year ago, I think they could only conceal something about the size of a pencil lead.
OssanAmerica at 01:06 AM JST - 17th January

The Russians? How about the Japanese?

The Japanese have no worries, they'll get it eventually from the US since Japan is an American military asset.
OssanAmerica at 01:07 AM JST - 17th January

The Romulans already have it.

But they gave it to the Klingons.
techall at 11:17 AM JST - 17th January

WillB; You saw an invisible cloak huh. Were you smoking potted plants with an english teacher at the time perhaps??
PepinGalarga at 12:36 PM JST - 17th January

i am surprised that the US is working with the Chinese on this sensitive area, which has dual applications, including military...

i'm pretty sure that the innovation came from the Chinese side in this case. It's pretty much a one way street if you know what i mean.

There are some good universities and tech parks in Jiangsu province, but i didnt know they were so far ahead in Nanotech.
randomenigma at 02:46 PM JST - 17th January

Dual applications, military and what? Fashion?
Weasel at 04:08 PM JST - 17th January

Odd to not see DARPA's name involved with this...unless, they've already got a working prototype.
Sarge at 11:04 PM JST - 17th January

This reminds me of a question my junior high school teacher asked our class:

Would you rather be able to become invisible, or be able to fly?

A classmate answered, "I would like to be able to fly, like a bird, because I would then be free, like a bird."

All the girls giggled and thought he was extremely cool.
Betting at 12:49 AM JST - 18th January

I wondered what I tripped over on in the street the other night. I swear I never saw anything.
Betting at 12:50 AM JST - 18th January

"Dual applications, military and what? Fashion?".

My guess would be practical jokes.
saborichan at 09:30 AM JST - 19th January

Fun as it sounds, it certainly has plenty of awful possibilities.
Good_Jorb at 11:57 PM JST - 19th January

"Dual applications, military and what? Fashion?".

I would imagine the other application would be for things like SWAT, counter-terrorism and change rooms.
EurajReturns at 12:32 AM JST - 22nd January

Certainly sounds more efficient than the little image relay system.

http://www.tecfre.com/i-can-be-invisible-invisibility-cloak/