More Invisibility
Can they make you invisible? (Telegraph)
This is an excellent article talking about four different approaches to invisibility being researched in the UK. There is also a show coming up for anyone lucky enough to be there.
The coolest technology is the first one they describe. Right now, it only works for some very exotic materials that can be made transparent using special laser light. Ultimately, it may be possible to have something like a flashlight that makes any target material invisible by causing the atoms the laser hits to allow or even enhance photons passing through, instead of absorbing and re-emitting as they normally do.
This is a hell of a lot more useful than the previous discussion, which could theoretically hide a small object. This could let doctors see inside the human body, let us look for minerals or oil under ground, let us find people trapped in rubble, and search bags or trucks non-invasively. It sounds like the lasers would need to be tuned specially for each kind of material, so exposing underlying layers would be practical, if it worked at all.
Yes, that means clothing too. But don’t get too excited. The target would certainly notice the effect. I’m not sure it makes cloaking practical, since the lasers aren’t exactly hidden. But as a live x-ray technique, it could really be amazing.
Oh, and one side-effect seems to be that light can be slowed as it passes some solid material. If it can be slowed enough, you could imagine something like your hand as a sort of analog video camera that could store images from some time before.
Quite cool stuff. If you get to see the show, let us know how it was.
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