...don't you? When I'm having a bad day, if someone's unhappy and making it well known to me, if the officer who pulled me over has a ticket in mind, or if I've embarrassed myself beyond belief...I just wish I could..."poof"...disappear!
Well, Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible! Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects. (My husband tells me all the time..."Wanda, what is on StarTrek is just around the corner in real-life! This stuff could really happen!". I tell him, "yeah honey, whatever!". Well, by golly, he may be right!)
The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released soon in the journals of Nature and Science. This new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
Normally, people can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Well, cloaking uses materials, know as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream. Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects to they don't create reflections or shadows!!! It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible, but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track.
Whoa, is this that nano-science stuff some are talking about? I'm amazed!
I'm going to figure out how to use this technique so when someone's looking for me that I'm not particularly fond of (you know, like a friendly auditor), I can "metamaterialize" myself and be gone!
Ok, ok, I'll be a big girl, face my contenders, and work on that needed conflict resolution stuff we need from time to time dealing with one another as human beings...it's inevitable, some days are great, communications are positive, and I'm smelling the flowers...then, well, there are days when you "step in it" and need to resolve tough issues, have the hard conversations, and hopefully come to a peaceful resolution filled with respect and positive recognition.
As Jean Luc Picard would say "engage!"