An invisibility device. Sort of.
A new article about the emerging science of metamaterials. The article has an obsessive focus on invisibility, but the applications are far greater than that. These metamaterials (at least in theory) could advance an overwhelming list of technologies, including supermicroscopes, nanotechnology, optical computers, cloaking, and more.
FTA: “…Scientists had long known that they could change the behavior of a material by altering its chemistry. For instance, you can alter the color and hardness of glass by adding lead. But now Pendry saw that he could also alter function by changing a material’s internal structure on a very fine scale, less than a wavelength of whatever he was manipulating…These new, structurally altered materials would soon become known as metamaterials, based on the Greek meta, meaning “beyond.” “We knew we were onto something,” Pendry says.”