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Article: Cast no shadows; Optical materials.(How to make an invisibility cloak)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 27, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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How to weave a cloak that makes you invisible
IN NORSE mythology, a magic cloak granted invisibility to Sigurd, a demi-god and skilled warrior with superhuman strength. Millennia later, a similar garment bestowed invisibility on Harry Potter, a schoolboy wizard. In the mortal (or Muggle) realm, engineers have for years tried with varying degrees of success to build such a device. This week a team of physicists and materials scientists announced it had devised a pattern for a potentially perfect invisibility cloak.
Light is an electromagnetic wave, with a longer wavelength than X-rays and ultraviolet, and a shorter wavelength than infra-red, microwaves ...