Scientists Ponder Invisibility Cloak

Want to turn invisible like Frodo when he wore the One Ring? Or stealth into thin space like a Romulan vessel? Or sneak up like a rogue from World of Warcraft on some unsuspecting jerk? Or skulk around secretly like the mad scientist in The Invisible Man? Or… well, there are countless examples of this sort of power throughout the realms of science fiction and fantasy. But could real-world technology be developed that would render solid objects (i.e. people) invisible? Andrew Bridges of the Associated Press (via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer) writes:

Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father.

Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.

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.

Details of the study, which Pendry co-wrote, appear in Thursday’s online edition of the journal Science.

Scientists not involved in the work said it presents a solid case for making invisibility an attainable goal.

“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.

Pendry and his co-authors also propose using metamaterials because they can be tuned to bend electromagnetic radiation - radio waves and visible light, for example - in any direction.

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