Many of you may have seen this article recently (there may have even been a thread started on it...but I don't recall and have watched closely)

Towards Cloaking Visible Light: Three-dimensional Metamaterials For The Optical Wavelength Range

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071221231539.htm

Last year researchers from Duke University stunned the world when they announced a cloaking device for the microwave range. This device made use of metamaterials that had a negative refractive index for electromagnetic radiation. The metamaterials were carefully designed split-ring resonators with a structure size much smaller than the wavelength. Only 10 stacked layers of metamaterials were necessary to achieve the desired invisibility effect.

.....(snip).....

Possible applications in the future include perfect lenses that beat the diffraction limit, and optical cloaking devices which provide some invisibility for macroscopic objects

Very interesting indeed. 

This isn't all that is being done using nanoscale science.  I will be posting more data that shows some of the cloaking technology developed to date. 

Consider, for example, the "Paint the Night" program run in the late 90's, headed by the great, late Mike Muuss (he also wrote "Ping", which is on virtually every computer in the world).

http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/papers/99mssg/sld007.htm

Now, if you consider the ability to create 'clouds' of vapor (each with a defined surface tension), you can see how the PTN technology could possibly evolve.  Further that with airborne nano's (which can 'congeal' due to EM properties).  Voila!!!

But this thread is about cloaking and invisibility.  So on with the show! 

Engineers Create 'Optical Cloaking' Design For Invisibility

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070402141206.htm
 

The Purdue University engineers, following mathematical guidelines devised in 2006 by physicists in the United Kingdom, have created a theoretical design that uses an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central spoke. The design, which resembles a round hairbrush, would bend light around the object being cloaked. Background objects would be visible but not the object surrounded by the cylindrical array of nano-needles, said Vladimir Shalaev, Purdue's Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The design does, however, have a major limitation: It works only for any single wavelength, and not for the entire frequency range of the visible spectrum, Shalaev said.

...(snippity snip)....

Calculations indicate the device would make an object invisible in a wavelength of 632.8 nanometers, which corresponds to the color red. The same design, however, could be used to create a cloak for any other single wavelength in the visible spectrum, Shalaev said. 

"How to create a design that works for all colors of visible light at the same time will be a big technical challenge, but we believe it's possible," he said. "It is clearly doable. In principle, this cloak could be arbitrarily large, as large as a person or an aircraft."

The construction of materials on this scale provides for some very unexpected results. 

Yes, the above information indicates cloaking in only 1 narrow band of the spectrum.  However, further design implementations (or combinations of layers, or combinations of approaches) make this a very exciting breakthrough.

These scientists clearly think it is doable.  There will likely be further breakthroughs in mathematics and geometry that arise from this particular groups' work.  It will be very exciting to see how it pans out for them. 

Theoretical Blueprint For Invisibility Cloak Reported

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060525193729.htm

Such a cloak could hide any object so well that observers would be totally unaware of its presence, according to the researchers. In principle, their invisibility cloak could be realized with exotic artificial composite materials called "metamaterials," they said. 

"The cloak would act like you've opened up a hole in space," said David R. Smith, Augustine Scholar and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke's Pratt School. "All light or other electromagnetic waves are swept around the area, guided by the metamaterial to emerge on the other side as if they had passed through an empty volume of space." 

Electromagnetic waves would flow around an object hidden inside the metamaterial cloak just as water in a river flows virtually undisturbed around a smooth rock, Smith said.

This is kind of a rehash of the OP post, but speaks directly about the electromagnetic properties of photons.  The experiment, on the whole, relies on the ability of photons to become something a little different (plasmons, which we will get into during another thread that is upcoming).  This conversion allows for the light to travel seamlessly along a narrow layer along the top of the metallic surface.

Cloaking Device? Invisible Technology One Step Closer

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070503100813.htm

Scientists have already created an 'invisibility cloak' made out of 'metamaterial' which can bend electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, radar or microwaves -- around a spherical space, making an object within this region appear invisible. 

Until now, scientists could only make objects appear invisible from far away. Liverpool mathematician Dr Sébastien Guenneau, together with Dr Frédéric Zolla and Professors André Nicolet from the University of Marseille, have proven - using a specially designed computer model called GETDP - that objects can also be made to appear invisible from close range when light travels in waves rather than beams

They already have, huh?  its old news?  hmmm.....

Please note, this link refers to work done at Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL).  The first and third post I made deal with Duke University, and the second post deals with Purdue.  This is quite the research field, if we have THIS much interest in it, right?

Hi Big, this sounds like plasmonics, by altering the electromagnetic field that raps around an object that actually places it into an invisible state. The electromagnetic radiation is bent around an object lets say for example a spaceship and it disappears even if viewed by a telescope now how about that.  Sounds like the invisible man technology maybe thats why we do not see aliens running around on the ground.  Rik Riley

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan, ATS Post ID 3989393

Plasmonics is exactly what this is.  With the advent of the ability to create new forms of metamaterials, the field of plasmonics is burgeoning with possibility.

The thing about this, to me, is that we have had countless skeptics come to this forum and tell us that electromagnetic force cannot alter the path that light travels.  This is a very specific series of experiments that prove that this is not true.

There is a coup de gras...but i am going to wait a little bit to post it.  Until then....

Clark School Researchers Develop 
Two-Dimensional Invisibility Cloak

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,244308.shtml

A research team at Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering comprised of Professor Christopher Davis, Research Scientist Igor Smolyaninov, and graduate student Yu-Ju Hung, has used plasmon technology to create the world's first invisibility cloak for visible light. The engineers have applied the same technology to build a revolutionary superlens microscope that allows scientists to see details of previously undetectable nanoscale objects.

...snip....

This manipulation causes the plasmon waves to appear to have moved in a straight line. In reality they have been guided around the cloak much as water in a stream flows around a rock, and released on the other side, concealing the cloak and the object inside from visible light. The invisibility that this phenomenon creates is not absolutely perfect because of energy loss in the gold film.

In this experiment there is a report of some level of energy loss.  From what i understand, this is more an artifact of the material having a level of "toxicity" to it (imperfections in the manufacturing process) more than any real artifact of the plasmon propagation.

As I have stated, there is more to share.  I wanted to get the topic started, see if there was any input from my fellow researchers.

To be honest, I expect a very half hearted response.  However, hope springs eternal!!! 

I also have some pdf's to share.  I need to find a file hosting service so that I can share them with you.  Until then, hit me with a U2U and tell me specifically what area you are interested in seeing additional information.  I can arrange to get it to you somehow from there. 

I thought this would iinclude something about X-tal fabric.  Somehow it transfers a reflection of whats behind it to the other side so you can see through the fabric.  This video is interesting and is the work of Susumu Tachi. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNKfvdy2yF8

I read about this a while ago. They are also using meta-material for gravito-pulse generation and photonic wormhole generation.

The use of metamaterials is wide spread.  The two applications you present are only a small piece of what is going on out there.

I have a thread on this site dealing with Thermoelectric materials. Not a single reply, but it has a good link dealing with thermoelectric wires composed of metamaterials.

I will be creating several threads on this information, slowly and over time.

Molding the flow of light at deep sub wavelength scale

PDF FILE LANL Archives

Abstract: 

The diffractive nature of light has limited optics and photonics to operate at scales much larger than the wavelength of light. The major challenge in scaling-down integrated photonics is how to mold the light flow below diffraction-limit in all three dimensions. A high index solid immersion lens can improve the spatial resolution by increasing the medium refractive index, but only to few times higher than in air. Photonic crystals can guide light in three dimensions, however, the guided beam width is around a wavelength. Surface plasmons has a potential to reach the sub-wavelength scales; nevertheless, it is confined in the two-dimensional interface between metals and dielectrics. Here, we present a new approach for molding the light flow at the deep sub-wavelength scale, using metamaterials with uniquely designed dispersion. We develop a design methodology for realizing sub-wavelength ray optics, and demonstrate lambda/10 width light beams flow through three-dimensional space.

The interesting about this piece is that it originates from LANL.  And they got the jump on Duke by about a month (+ or -).

As Zorgon has mentioned multiple times, he has recieved indication that "the predator is alive and well at Los Alamos".  It seems that we have, if not a smoking gun, at least a spent shell casing that helps support Zorgon's assertion.

reply to post by Areal51
The characters are always talking about plasma this and plasma that, so when you read the real stuff it kind of boggles the mind a little bit.

Plasma may actually be the key to many things including invisibility. Can a sufficient amount of x-rays cause transparency? Some plasmas can emit x-rays. Imagine what a large plasma chamber can do.

There was a UFO incident in Canada where the witness had the rare opportunity to look inside a craft. What he saw resembled a plasma chamber at the center! Consequently, he was physically hurt by toxic gases expelled from the craft and by looking at its extreme brilliance. The toxic gases could be waste byproducts from the plasma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtb8ph2WQQ

I made a similar post at http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread337165/pg5 if anyone is interested. 

Interesting you should cross post this video, nikola.

I had been discussing this same topic in another thread, as well as in another forum this morning.

The more we find out about the wave functions of the various quantum elements, the more we find that they are highly interchangable and convertable.

Plasma is a big key to this.  Too bad Chorlton was banned.  I would be interested to hear him explain, once again, that electromagnetism and gravity are not related.

Three Ways To Levitate A Magic Carpet 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12429-three-ways-to-levitate-a-magic-carpet.html

So say physicists who believe the same exotic materials used to make cloaking devices could also be used to levitate tiny objects. In a further breakthrough, two other research groups have come a step closer to cracking the mysteries of levitation.

Scientists have levitated objects before, most famously using powerful magnetic fields to levitate a frog. But that technique, using the repulsive force of a giant magnet, requires large amounts of energy. In contrast, the latest theories exploit the natural smaller amounts of energy produced by the quantum fluctuations of empty space.

....snip.....

The device was formed from so-called "metamaterials", exotic materials made from complex arrays of metal units and wires. The metal units are smaller than the wavelength of light and so the materials can be engineered to precisely control how electromagnetic light waves travel around them. "They can transform space, tricking electromagnetic waves into moving along directions they otherwise wouldn't," says Leonhardt.

...snip....

Capasso and his colleagues have also been working on an alternative scheme to harness a repulsive Casimir effect. Their calculations show that a repulsive Casimir force could be set up between a 42.7 micrometre-wide gold-coated polystyrene sphere and a silicon dioxide plate, if the two are immersed in ethanol. "Although the Casimir force between any two substances – the ethanol and gold, the gold and the silicon dioxide, or the silicon dioxide and the ethanol – is positive, the relative strengths of attraction are different, and when you combine the materials, you should see the gold sphere levitate," he says.

I have posted this in my "Search for Dr. Ning Li" antigrav thread... but this is very interesting to say the least.

The use of "metamaterials" is changing the way we do things.  It is very promising to see another form of levitation being made possible.  It would be even more promising if we could find a way to make this happen in an anti-grav effect.