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Article: Invisibility cloak in view?(physical)(Brief article)
- Article from:
- Current Science, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- November 14, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Weekly Reader Corp. 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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BERKELEY, Calif. -- The adventures of Harry Potter may one day be reclassified as nonfiction. Researchers at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, have invented materials with the potential to act like Harry's invisibility cloak and make things disappear.
The materials are called metamaterials, artificial substances with properties not seen in nature. The UC metamaterials can affect electromagnetic radiation in extraordinary ways. Electromagnetic radiation is waves of energy that travel through space and matter. Gamma rays, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, radio waves--all are electromagnetic radiation. So is visible light, the radiation that the human eye ...