Invisibility...Possible?

[Rayne]

Well Looks as if Invisibility may soon be possible. Scientists doing research
say that this technology is only theoretically possible (ie: not in practice now) and
could be used in near future applications.

Right now more research needs to be done on artificially bending wavelengths.
If we can bend radio waves and manipulate radar signals, this could potentially
benefit finding ways to bend and manipulate light wavelengths. Such advances
must be made if we can hope to achive bending light properties.

Essentially, if one can bend light around them, they appear as invisible because
the light that passes around them will refelct off any object behind them.

Article from reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.

Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H.G. Wells' Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent.

But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the "Fantastic Four".

"She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could be done in practice," Leonhardt told Reuters in an interview. "That comes closest to what engineers will probably be able to do in the future."

Invisibility is an optical illusion that the object or person is not there. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone. The water flows in, swirls around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there.

"If you replace the water with light then you would not see that there was something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front," he said.

In the research published in the New Journal of Physics, Leonhardt described the physics of theoretical devices that could create invisibility. It is a follow-up paper to an earlier study published in the journal Science.

"What the Invisible Woman does is curve space around herself to bend light. What these devices would do is to mimic that curved space," he said.

Although the devices are still theoretical, Leonhardt said scientists are making advances in metamaterials -- artificial materials with unusual properties that could be used to make invisibility devices.

"There are advances being made in metamaterials that mean the first devices will probably be used for bending radar waves or the electromagnetic waves used by mobile phones," he said.

The devices could be used as protection mechanisms so the radiation emitted from mobile phones does not penetrate electronic equipment. It is guided around it.

"It is very likely that the demonstration for radar would come first and very soon. To go into the visual will take some time but it is also not so far off," Leonhardt said.

 

[The Big Al]

That's been the science fiction writers' reasoning behind cloaking technology for decades. Still, it's cool to see real scientists looking into it.

 

[Rayne]

True, they even base it off Wonder Woman's power in the article.

 

[GrnMarvl14]

You'd be surprised by how many comic characters have powers that are theoretically possible and being seriously looked at by scientists. And, keep in mind, Wonder Woman was created by the guy that created the lie detector machine (completely blanking on the name), so science and comics have been disturbingly close for decades.

 

[Habunake]

Sweet! This can fufill many bizarre fantasies for people, now all we need is to make inflation and giant powers real.

 

[Barb]

Wonder Woman was created by the guy that created the lie detector machine (completely blanking on the name), so science and comics have been disturbingly close for decades.

Dr. William Moulton Marston. He was a Harvard-trained psychologist with a Ph.D.

 

[Transfinite]

Nice, but wouldn't such technology make anyone who was using it blind?

 

[The Big Al]

And there in lies the problem. Though, they could use equipment to see in other spectrums like infared or ultraviolet.

 

[Rayne]

True, they even base it off Wonder Woman's power in the article.

Whoops! I made a typo, I meant Invisible Woman when I said Wonder Woman.
Though, Wonder Woman uses an invisible plane right? Same concepts apply here.

 

[Habunake]

Invisible Woman?

Whose that, never heard of her.

 

[The Big Al]

Fantastic 4 anyone?

 

[GrnMarvl14]

Uh oh. Don't know if you're kidding or not. Either way, you're lucky I have quick links I can use instead of doing the long explanation.

Invisible Woman

And there in lies the problem. Though, they could use equipment to see in other spectrums like infared or ultraviolet.

And, like most super-powers, there's always that one, small catch that keeps it in the realm of sci-fi/fantasy.

 

[Scrye-Maple]

Cool! I would like to be invisible for a while!

 

[Habunake]

Ahh, Invisible Woman.

I always thought it was Invisible Girl?

 

[GrnMarvl14]

It was. They changed it...I think in the 80s.

 

[Roses Ablaze]

You'd be surprised by how many comic characters have powers that are theoretically possible and being seriously looked at by scientists. And, keep in mind, Wonder Woman was created by the guy that created the lie detector machine (completely blanking on the name), so science and comics have been disturbingly close for decades.

Isn't the lie detector machine, like, really unreliable?

 

[Kijuna]

Didn't they try that with the Philadelphia Experiment?

 

[GrnMarvl14]

That was teleportation.