Scientists Make Paper Clip Invisible Using Natural Crystals !!!

February 2, 2011 by Nataly in Science

Img.source: www.popsci.com

Journal ‘Nature Communications’ published a research in which physicists from the University of Birmingham have demonstrated an ‘invisibility cloak’ that can hide a 3D object, centimetres in dimension, large enough for the cloaking area to be visible to the human eye.

The physicists say that, by using a light bending crystal, they were able to successfully make the paperclip disappear.

In previous studies, scientists used meta-materials to hide tiny scale objects, but now the use of calcite crystal has allowed this to be scaled up thousands of times.

‘‘This is a huge step forward as, for the first time, the cloaking area is rendered at a size that is big enough for the observer to ‘see’ the invisible object with the naked eye,” said Dr Shuang Zhang, lead investigator from the University of Birmingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy.

“By using natural crystals for the first time, rather than artificial meta-materials, we have been able to scale up the size of the cloak and can hide larger objects, thousands of times bigger than the wavelength of the light,” he added.

The scientists say the technique is only limited by the size of the naturally formed crystal which can be more than 21ft long.

Sources: 1, 2