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Tuesday, 1st July 2008 (6449 views)

The use of very thin gold may help objects to disappear, claims new research.

Graeme Milton, a mathematician at the University of Utah, said theoretically an object called a superlens can make a small object invisible, according to CNN.

Models made by Mr Milton and his collaborators in Australia found that when light hits the superlens, it reverses and so an item may seem to have vanished.

"We've seen it numerically - not in practice, but we've got a theoretical proof that collections of particles become invisible," he said.

Mr Milton said that if the superlens was created in reality, very thin gold could produce the same effect.

David Smith, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, made microwaves in light invisible in 2006 by using electromagnetic waves, according to National Geographic.

He said objects as large as a truck could be made invisible in principle.

"We just don't know how to do it yet".

 

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