Invisibility: To see or not to see!

So, can something like an invisibility cloak from the Harry Potter stories be made? Not yet, but perhaps soon. It all involves something called metamaterials, which are essentially materials made up of simple electronic components in repeated patterns that give the material electromagnetic properties not occurring naturally in nature. Recently there has been work published postulating how such a thing could be achieved, and the effect was actually demonstrated recently in an experiment at Duke University in 2006. That experiment involved invisibility to microwave radiation, not visible light however, and in only one wavelength.

The concept seems to have been proven however, and the real hurdle right now is just to create a metamaterial with the correct properties for visible light.

Cloaking devices for aircraft, submarines and such appear to be simpler to achieve since the effect would not have to change shape the way a cloak over a moving human form would have to. In this article at Science Daily, it states that scientists believe invisibility will be possible for objects of any size and shape within the next ten years.

There is an interesting article at Scientific American about building a tunnel out of this material, and how it would appear like a wormhole: light passing through it would seem to be appearing from another dimension.

I've been having a lot of fun thinking of some of the more bizarre applications for this sort of technology, other than the obvious military applications and such. Imagine activating the anti-theft device on your vehicle in the parking lot, and it disappears! Of course then someone else trying to park might plow into it, so maybe not such a good idea after all... How about using it to hide the structural supports for a building so it appears to be floating in space? Or improving the view in some places by rendering industrial infrastructure invisible? How about a closet door that disappears once you close it, leaving only a blank wall? The problem with almost any use for it of course is similar to the parking lot problem- for most things, you have to be able to see them for safety.

It's going to be interesting to see what the next developments in this field will be, now that the theory for how to achieve this effect has been established. See you out there (or maybe not)!