Carbon nanotube 'space camouflage' coating invented. 22 November 2011Last updated at 14:17 A tank etched out of silicon viewed without carbon nanotube coating (left) and with the coating Tiny carbon tubes can be used to hide three-dimensional objects from view, according to a team of researchers.
The nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of graphene wrapped into cylindrical tubes. Engineers from University of Michigan found they could be used to obscure objects so that they appeared to be nothing more than a flat black sheet. The team suggest "forests" of the material may one day be used to cloak spacecraft in deep space. The group says the technology works because the nanotubes' "index of refraction [is] very close to that of air".
This means they slow down light to a similar degree. Invisibility cloak made of carbon nanotubes uses 'mirage effect' to disappear. Physicists Create Magnetic Invisibility Cloak. By Kate McAlpine, ScienceNOW The sneaky science of “cloaking” just keeps getting richer.
Physicists and engineers had already demonstrated rudimentary invisibility cloaks that can hide objects from light, sound, and water waves. Now, they’ve devised an “antimagnet” cloak that can shield an object from a constant magnetic field without disturbing that field. If realized, such a cloak could have medical applications, researchers say.
“This will take cloaking technology another step forward,” says John Pendry, a theorist at Imperial College London and co-inventor of the original cloaking idea, who was not involved in the present work. In fact, shutting out a static magnetic field to protect an object isn’t that hard. But that doesn’t make a superconducting can a magnetic cloak. The cloak could handle fields of any shape and any strength within what the superconductor can stand. More seriously, the magnetic cloak could have medical applications. Images: 1) Iron filings in a magnetic field. Watch: ‘Invisibility Cloak’ Uses Mirages to Make Objects Vanish. Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas have hijacked one of nature’s most intriguing phenomena — the mirage — to make an invisibility cloak.
It can hide objects from view, works best underwater and even has a near-instant on/off switch. To understand how it works, you need to first grasp the basics of the mirage effect. This unusual experience, sometimes seen in the desert or on hot roads during the summer, can trick your brain into seeing objects that aren’t really there.
[partner id="wireduk"] It happens when a big change in temperature over a small distance bends light rays so they’re sent towards the eye rather than bouncing off the surface. With that in mind, the researchers wanted to find a material that has an exceptional ability to conduct heat and quickly transfer it to surrounding areas to mimic the light-distorting temperature gradients of the desert. You can see it in action in the video above.