Extended Bibliography Two

Choi, Charles Q. "New 'Invisibility Cloak' Hides 3-D Objects From Naked Eye"
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/03/new-invisibility-cloak-hides-objects-naked-eye/
Published February 03, 2011

In this article, Charles Choi briefly describes some of the newest technology in the field of 'invisibility'. Already, using different techniques and materials, scientists can bend light around objects to seemingly make them 'disappear'. Choi describes how in the past materials called 'metamaterials'. These 'metamaterials' can already conceal light, but only in the smallest of light wavelengths, outside that of human eyes. This article specifically describes a new technique involving aligning special crystals to bend light. This new technique would allow for a larger object to be cloaked.

The idea of making someone or something invisible has been present for centuries. Before it was thought as magic, but as this article describes, it may soon be a larger reality. Already it is possible to cloak very small wavelengths, and as seen in this article, at least up to 2 cm of an object can be cloaked, and possibly more. Choi sites the other methods of cloaking, as well as the testing using this new method in order to compare the two. Why would this be helpful though? What would we need to cloak?

Immediate thoughts may be military applications. We already have stealth fighters, but land vehicles are still fairly easy to see. After all, enemies don't need a sensor to see a tank rolling down the street. So, if this kind of technology could be improved and expanded, our military could and probably would apply it to ground based vehicles, infantry, and unmanned vehicles.

Aside from military use, it would be very handy, for example, if the CIA acquired this kind of technology(assuming they haven't already). They could truly spy on enemies of the state without being seen. Unfortunately, this kind of technology could also be used by enemies.

With these immediate thoughts on the use for this technology, it is difficult to see the civilian use. I suppose the goal of advancing in this technology would be to acquire it first, and discover countermeasures before enemies do.

I do have a few questions for the article. First, the article states that the largest crystal in nature was 7 meters by 7 meters by 2 meters. The article fails to explain, however, if this crystal is plentiful or not, or if it's qualities could be manufactured. This path to cloaking would end quickly if there isn't enough material. Second, the article describes one of the drawbacks to this technique being that it depends on polarized light. This significantly diminishes the use of this technology, currently. What can be done to answer this problem? Is it unfixable? Also, the end of the article mentions that while the object being cloaked is not visible, the cloak itself is, leaving the outline around the field of invisibility. Not very effective as it could be. Again, can this be fixed? If even one of these problems can't be fixed, it may just be simpler to move to another technique. But like all science, even in failure, we learn something.