Morgan BellScience fiction, or reality?
May 29th 2006 12:11
Science has often drawn inspiration from the imaginations of science fiction authors and screenwrites. Black holes, for example, may be portals into alternate universes or dimensions, or vehicles of time travel. Holograph machines similar to those used for communication in the classic Star Wars series were created early last year, using technology that “modified” air particles to render them visible.
“Battlefield robots” like those in the Terminator movies were reported in July 2004 to have been created by the US military. "We're probably 10 to 20 years behind the least sophisticated system you'd see in something like Terminator 3, but we’re getting there,” said Robin Laird, supervisor of the Unmanned Systems Branch of the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego.
Now, physicists may have found a way to make the magic of Harry Potter – and Lord of the Rings – a reality. Last Thursday, CNN reported that researchers in England and the United States may know how to create “an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father”. The cloaking device will require the development of “metamaterials”, which, as the New Scientist explains, are “exotic composites made of electronic components such as wires and inductors that can be engineered to precisely control the way light travels through them”.
A cloaking device made from metamaterials will be structured so that light will be diverted around the device, essentially making it invisible.
It’s a novel idea, but optics expert Will Stewart of the University of Southampton, UK, is unconvinced. "It's great fun and a lovely idea, but I don't think it can literally be taken and applied to make an optical cloak," he told the New Scientist.
(image from digitalmeltdown)
Portals into other dimensions?
Now, physicists may have found a way to make the magic of Harry Potter – and Lord of the Rings – a reality. Last Thursday, CNN reported that researchers in England and the United States may know how to create “an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father”. The cloaking device will require the development of “metamaterials”, which, as the New Scientist explains, are “exotic composites made of electronic components such as wires and inductors that can be engineered to precisely control the way light travels through them”.
A cloaking device made from metamaterials will be structured so that light will be diverted around the device, essentially making it invisible.
It’s a novel idea, but optics expert Will Stewart of the University of Southampton, UK, is unconvinced. "It's great fun and a lovely idea, but I don't think it can literally be taken and applied to make an optical cloak," he told the New Scientist.
(image from digitalmeltdown)
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