Five years ago, scientists shocked the world by first predicting that it should be possible to make an invisibility cloak and then, just 5 months later, by producing a rudimentary version of such a device. The original cloak worked only imperfectly for microwave radiation of a fixed wavelength, but since then researchers have developed new cloaking schemes that work over a range of wavelengths and have pushed to shorter optical wavelengths. How does cloaking work? Will scientists ever make a cloak that, like Harry Potter’s cloak, can hide a person? More practically speaking, what might researchers and technologists do with such devices?
Join us for a live chat about the potential of invisibility cloaking at a special time of 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 20 October, on this page. You can leave your questions in the comment box below before the chat starts.
Ulf Leonhardt
David Schurig
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