Latest milestone in science: the 'invisibility cloak'
The next James Bond flick could very likely feature a situation where the baddies get bashed up by an invisible Bond. Yup, Bond film writers may soon borrow an idea from the latest scientific development: the ‘invisibility strands’. So the next time you see Bond, rather don’t see Bond, it could be because he’s wearing a new gadget that makes him invisible. The invisibility strands created by Texas-based scientist could soon result in a whole apparel – a cloak, much like the one worn by Frodo Baggins from JRR Tolkien’s trilogy Lord of the Rings.
The strands are made of carbon nanotubes that absorb light so completely that the object covered by it simply ‘disappears’. The creator – Dr Ali Aliev is a research scientist working for the University of Texas, Dallas. His amazing work has been recorded and posted on YouTube.
During an interview with MSNBC Dr Aliev said that with the invention one “really can hide objects”. The invention, although the first step in a long chain of developments, has fired the imagination of people. Already speculation is rife about the innumerable possibilities of using the ‘invisibility cloak’ in the battlefields and other fields like espionage. One example is that of ground army tanks being covered by such a cloak in order to avoid detection by the enemy.
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Meanwhile NASA scientists who had also been working along the same lines have achieved some success. A NASA report that arrived at the SPIE Optics and Photonics conference talked about its engineers’ success in creating the darkest substance on Earth. Engineers working at Goddard Space Flight Center said they had created a substance using carbon nanotubes that can absorb nearly all the light that strikes it. That includes all visible and non-visible lights such as ultraviolet, infrared and even far infrared.
The material’s absorption capacity is an amazing 99 percent-plus. As a result, it is virtually invisible to the human eye and can also be missed by other sensitive detectors. The development is a great leap in space technology according to John Hagopian, who heads the team of engineers at NASA's Maryland facility.
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