Coming Soon - Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak

Life in Harry Potter land certainly became more exciting the day he received that package with the invisibility cloak from Dumbledore. If scientists in Berkeley, California are to be believed - our lives may become as exciting soon!

Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley recently announced, that they were a step closer to developing materials that can make people wearing them 'invisible'.

In fact two teams, both reporting to researcher Xiang Zhang , have developed two different materials made of metametals - which are artificial structures that have a smaller wavelength than that of light. This gives the material unusual properties, allowing them to 'bend' light waves.

That means that the light will go around these materials instead of through them - hence, if the material is covering an object it will be 'invisible'.

One team used nanometer (a billionth of a meter) scale stacks of silver and magnesium fluoride to create a structure that resembles a 'fishnet'. The other team used nanowires made of silver.

However, before you get all excited - both teams stress that this is just the beginning and the samples created are very very very tiny ! Also both materials are made from metals which are very fragile - to get to the size and flexibility of a fully wearable cloak will take a few more years. But after that, . . . . . . . . . .the possibilities are endless. Pretty exciting stuff isn't it?

Source: BBCNews.com, National Geographic.com