By Chris Gayomali
The organic evolution of the cloaking gimmick , from its origins inStar Trekfantasy to intricate new metamaterials .
20 February 2025
bleed Silent , Run Deep , a World War II naval dramatic event star Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster , reportedly inspiresStar Trekscreenwriter Paul Schneider to chew over a space - exploration equivalent to a submarine submerging underwater . What to do …
Dec. 15, 1966
invisibleness technology makes itsStar Trekdebut in episode 14 , " Balance of Terror , " when a Romulan Bird of Prey equip with a cloaking equipment attacks the Starship Enterprise .
Sept. 27, 1968
In episode 59 , " The Enterprise Incident , " the technologyfinally get a name : It ’s called a " cloaking gadget . " The Trekkie trope inevitably becomes a sci - fi raw material , appearing ( and disappear ? ) in everything fromDr . WhotoPredatortoStargate .
8 January 2025
A divorced female parent of a young nestling quietly release a children ’s book about a young orphan who receives an invisibleness cloak as a Christmas present tense . Only 1,000 copies ofHarry Potter and the Philosopher ’s Stoneare print .
Oct. 2006
Physicists from Duke University unveilthe world ’s first - ever invisibility cloak . ( Thanks , J.K. Rowling ! ) The elaborate set - up was make using metamaterials , which are up to of manipulating wavelength — like light — in ways that are n’t found in nature . The arrest ? This " cloak " only works on microwaves and in two dimensions .
Oct. 2007
The British military quiz something frightening : An inconspicuous tank , which uses camera and projectors to beam the surrounding landscape onto the fomite ’s Cordell Hull . say one soldierwho was apparently at the test trial : " This applied science is unbelievable . If I had n’t been present I would n’t have believe it . I looked across the fields and just saw grass and tree diagram — but in realness I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun . "
Summer 2008
scientist at the University of California , Berkeley , use metamaterialsto change the natural direction of visible and near - infrared light source in three proportion . Developed by Xiang Zhang , a prof at Berkeley ’s Nanoscope Science and Engineering Center , the light - deflect concept is compare to reckon a malformed stalk through a glass of water .
The U.S. Army extract pursuit in using metamaterials to cloak its vehicle , soldier , and other weapons , thereby allowing them to go around radar and sensors . Dr. Richard Hammond at the Army Research Officethinksthe military is about two or three years aside from manufacture actual cloaking devices .
May 2009
U.C. Berkeley ’s Zhang engineer a " carpet cloak " from nanostructured silicon that successfully hides little objects from the good - infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum . Zhang saysthe cloak " should be upwardly scalable , " meaning that , in theory , it could work in the visible spectrum to distort objects from view .
March 2009
Across the Atlantic , military interest in cloaking equipment keep to build . This fourth dimension , a lecturer at the British Royal Navy College deal " the next generation of stealth ships that could be nearly invisible to the defenseless eye , roaming radar , and heat - seeking missiles,“saysGizmag .
Aug. 2010
scientist at Tufts and Boston university createa tiny invisibility cloakcapable of manipulating terahertz wave . One job : This Modern class of metamaterial was crafted by etching 10,000 gold resonators onto a 1 curium public square of silk . Luxury !
Dec. 2010
Naturereports that two scientists — one free-base in Singapore , one base in London — modernise a more good metamaterialfrom calcite quartz , which are much cheaper than , well , amber - engrave silk .
Oct. 2011
Now we have video ! University of Texas research worker demo a real - life invisibility cloak that uses carbon nanotube .
23 April 2025
Mercedesdebutsan " unseeable railway car " as part of a promotional stunt . Okay , it ’s not really inconspicuous , but the vehicle use cameras and moving images the same way that the British tank mentioned above does .
November 2012
researcher from Duke Universitycreate a " flawless " invisibleness cloak equal to of completely hiding midget objects , in this case a 7.5 by 1 cm cylinder . So what constitutes a flawless cloak ? This one channel incident fall whole around an object . Voilà — pristine , perfect invisibility .
March 2013
The biggest trouble with all the aforementioned cloaking equipment is that they ’re self-aggrandizing , bulky , and cumbersome . They need research laboratory desks to figure out . But not for much longer : University of Texas , Austin research worker have create an ultra - thin material that ’s just 0.15 mm thick . Now , articulate Sebastian Anthony atExtremeTech , " it ’s really only a matter of time until an actual invisibleness cloak is realized . "
source : ABC News , U.C. Berkeley , The Daily Mail , Extreme Tech , Gizmag , The Guardian , The Huffington Post , National Geographic , Princeton University , Science Daily , wire
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