Invisible? Not quite...

While trying to think of a topic to write about this week, I decided to check out some science news web sites, and sciencedaily.com had an interesting article. The title of it was “'Invisibility Cloak' Successfully Hides Objects Placed Under It” and its name is somewhat misleading. First of all, the only test of the new material used to achieve this effect, composed completely of dielectrics, was too small for the naked eye to actually see. Secondly, in the article it specifically states that this material was only able to mask the height of objects underneath it. For example, if a box was completely covered in the material, and then was set on the floor, the material would bend the light reflecting off of it in a way so as to make it appear that nothing is underneath it, in essence, taking away the third dimension, depth and people's ability to perceive it. Thirdly, this specific material is only able to mask objects in the 1,400 to 1,800 nanometer range, slightly below infrared, but higher than visible light. On the other hand, the article does clarify that while the test was indeed on a rather small scale, that since the material is made completely of dielectrics, it can easily be upscaled to larger objects. The article also states that the team responsible for this research and development is next going to try and create a new material able to achieve this effect in three dimensions, which would render an object completely undetectable by the naked eye. It seems the media has over hyped yet another great discovery.
The article mentioned can be found here.