Scientists can see through invisibility cloak
A team of Chinese scientists have developed a way to unmask Harry Potters invisibility cloak ... did anyone tell them it was not real.
They say their "anti-cloak" that would cancel the effect of a "meta" material invisibility cloak, if and when one is invented.
Devices that achieve invisibility have long been the stuff of film fantasy. In recent years, however, scientists have shown that the Hollywood dream could one day become reality.
Recently boffins created special materials that can bend light so much that it actually passes around the object completely.
But now, just as perverts around the world start saving for their own invisibility cloak, experts from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China say they have developed way to cancel the cloaking effect.
While an invisibility cloak would bend light around an object, any region that came into contact with their 'anti-cloak' would guide some light back and become visible.
Oddly though it is not all bad news for spies, the anti-cloak could actually improve the invisibility cloak.
The potential problem has always been that if a cloak bends light around itself to become invisible the wearer would be in pitch darkness.
But with some anti-cloak under the invisibility cloak the wearer could see out without being seen themselves.
"Cloaking is an important problem since invisibility can help survival in hostile environment," says researcher Huanyang Chen, "With the anti-cloak, Potter can see outside if he wants to."
Again, did anyone tell them Harry Potter is not real.
