"How to hide a bump with some logs
Physicists design an invisibility cloak that works from multiple points of view
By Lisa Grossman
Web edition : Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Invisibility cloaks are finally taking up some space. For the first time, scientists have built devices that can obscure objects in all three dimensions.

Several cloaking devices that have emerged from the shadows in the last few years render objects invisible by bending light in ways it would never naturally go. Beyond making things vanish, the devices could eventually have applications in computing, optics and mimicking general relativity on a lab bench..." Science News

Over thousands of years man has said "That is impossible!" referring to everything from building invisibility cloakes to exceeding 60 miles per hour. It is said that man will not reach the stars, exceed the speed of light, understand the intricacies of quantum mechanics, turn lead into gold, ad infinitum.

The reality is that throughout history virtually anyone who has ever made that statement has been proven wrong. Universally, the statements are made by people who do not know the limits of their knowledge and the potential of others.

Have you heard anyone say that? Are there things you think are impossible? Do you think mankind has limits and what are they?

Can mankind produce honest politicians? I don't think so.

This is precursor tech for Holographic movies! For real! Imagine watching a movie like you were in a helicopter watching a battle going on or a Roman Orgy! FUN STUFF!

Ha Ha. I sounds more like you want to be invisible to be a fly on the wall of a real Roman orgy!

interesting

Do you think we will ever have virtual wars instead of putting actual human lives at risk

You mean invisibility ISN'T for walking unseen into the girls' shower room ... ? Dang. Learn sump'm new ev'ry day ...

Only if there's big money in it....

I saw that on an early Star Trek episode so it's gotta happen.

I never watched Star Trek!!

They played "war" on the computer and the computer calculated how many people died. Those people were then ordered to march into the disintegration box.

sorta like "Ender's Game"?

Real people or computer people?

There are definitely limits, but we may find creative ways to circumvent those limits without violating them. We cannot move matter in its natural form through normal space at a speed greater than c, but there might be many ways of accomplishing the same result.

It was being done back in 2006.

Metamaterial electromagnetic cloak at microwave frequencies

D. Schurig, J. J. Mock, B. J. Justice, S. A. Cummer, J. B. Pendry, A. F. Starr, D. R. Smith

People frequently limit themselves.


As far as invisibility? I have many moments when I'm certain I must be...

I find the easiest way to become invisible is to lose all of your friends, lose contact with your family, talk to no-one at work, and dress the same as everyone else. That way, if you were to die or be abducted, no would notice you were gone.

I read a story once, in the paper, about a man who had put all of his incoming funds on auto-deposite and all of his outgoing on auto-draft. He had no family or close friends. This man died and it wasn't until several years later, when his neighborhood was taken over by a home-owners'-association, the police came to his home with a warrant for his arrest due to his un-kempt yard.



...invisibility in a nut-shell, no cloaking-device needed. :(

in Africa during the British Invasion of the early 1800s many Africans held ritual wars that were more like big displays. It was Chaka of the Zulu who ended that. He began to shed blood in war. It goes like this, you can only "play pretend" war before it erupts into a real fur ball. Someone will get the idea that while in a simulated battle they may not have the advantage but in a real one they do.

If you want to end war as we know it make our leaders fight it instead of the rest of us. I would pay fifty bucks just to see Obama and Vladamir Putin go at it. Obama would get his *** handed to him. I would stand a much better chance facing Putin and I would not want to. That man is a world champion Judo Fighter! And he is a Russian politician. It is so easy to order others to fight instead of leading them into combat themselves!

As I understood the article the part that is new is that it is finally being done in 3D. They are also making progress in visible wavelengths.

Not on Mingle!

They are making progress in cloaking slight deviations out of a plane (bumps) but the physics is the same as the microwave devices and negative index metamaterials...