By: Camilo Pardo, Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have successfully manipulated the “mirage effect” to engineer an underwater invisibility cloak reminiscent of the cloak in the beloved Harry Potter series. Earlier this month Dr. Ray Baughman and other researchers devised an experiment to hide objects from view using nanotechnology and photo-thermal deflection. More commonly termed the “mirage effect”, the idea behind this phenomenon is simple. A drastic change in temperature over a small distance bends light rays towards your eye as opposed to bouncing off the surface. An example of this effect: when looking down a road on a hot
summer day, a puddle of water can be seen in the distance. That puddle doesn’t actually exist; it is merely an illusion created by the deflected light photons, and you are actually seeing an image of the blue sky being redirected from the ground. Researchers’ first step involved finding a material that would be able to facilitate the “mirage effect”, which they discovered with carbon nanotubes. These are microscopic cylindrical molecules that are 1/10,000 the thickness of a strand of hair, light as air, stronger than steel, and most importantly, they transmit heat quickly. Dr.
 |
| Screen Shot On Linked Video |
Baughman presented the irony of these carbon nanotubes when he stated that their original purpose was to see how they would work as speakers. Sheets of these nanotubes were aligned in an underwater container and heated to elevated temperatures through electrical stimulation. The heat that’s transferred to the surrounding areas generates a temperature gradient, which then causes light rays to bend away from the concealed object. Ta-da! The object has now disappeared to the naked eye. Read Full: "Mirage Effect” Creates First Underwater Invisibility Cloak | the quad
