http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20409-2197222,00.html
By Mark Henderson
A STAR TREK-style cloaking device that makes objects invisible is theoretically feasible and could be developed within five years, scientists said yesterday.
Materials that bend light could be fashioned into buildings or vehicles that cannot be seen, according to a paper in the journal Science.
John Pendry, of Imperial College, London, and David Smith, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said that the technology was already in development. Professor Pendry said: "You could build a shed out of this material and drive a tank in there, or hold a party inside it, and once you close the door everything it contains would be completely invisible."
The work has attracted funding from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting a scheme to create a cloak to make objects invisible to radar and radio waves. The key to the cloak is "metamaterial", which is made using nanotechnology that can change the direction of electromagnetic radiation.
By Mark Henderson
A STAR TREK-style cloaking device that makes objects invisible is theoretically feasible and could be developed within five years, scientists said yesterday.
Materials that bend light could be fashioned into buildings or vehicles that cannot be seen, according to a paper in the journal Science.
John Pendry, of Imperial College, London, and David Smith, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said that the technology was already in development. Professor Pendry said: "You could build a shed out of this material and drive a tank in there, or hold a party inside it, and once you close the door everything it contains would be completely invisible."
The work has attracted funding from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting a scheme to create a cloak to make objects invisible to radar and radio waves. The key to the cloak is "metamaterial", which is made using nanotechnology that can change the direction of electromagnetic radiation.
