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Invisibility Shields Planned by Engineers

James Owen in London
for National Geographic News

February 28, 2005
In popular science fiction, the power of invisibility is readily apparent. Star Trek fans, for example, know that the devious Romulans could make their spaceships suddenly disappear.

But is the idea really so implausible? Not according to new findings by scientists who say they have come up with a way to create cloaking device.


Electronic engineers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are researching a device they say could make objects "nearly invisible to an observer." The contrivance works by preventing light from bouncing off the surface of an object, causing the object to appear so small it all but disappears.

The concept was reported today by the science news Web site news@nature.com. It says the proposed cloaking device would not require any peripheral attachments (such as antennas or computer networks) and would reduce visibility no matter what angle an object is viewed at.

Sir John Pendry, a physicist at Imperial College, London, said the concept potentially holds several important applications "in stealth technology and camouflage."

While types of invisibility shielding have been developed before, the phenomenon described by Andrea Alú and Nader Engheta sounds like something that might have been witnessed from the bridge of science fiction's starship Enterprise.

The concept is based on a "plasmonic cover," which is a means to prevent light from scattering. (It is light bouncing off an object that makes it visible to an observer).

The cover would stop light from scattering by resonating at the same frequency as the light striking it. If such a device could cope with different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (including visible light), in theory, the object would vanish into thin air.

Plasmonic Covers

Alú and Engheta investigated experimental plasmonic covers that incorporated metals, such as gold and silver, to hide visible light.

When light strikes a metallic material, waves of electrons, called plasmons, are generated. The engineers found that when the frequency of the light striking the material matched the frequency of the plasmons, the two frequencies act to cancel each other out.

Under such conditions, the metallic object scattered only negligible amounts of light.

The researchers' studies show that spherical and cylindrical objects coated with plasmonic shielding material produce very little light scattering. These objects, when hit by the right wavelength of light, were seen to become so small that they were almost invisible.

The study is supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which researches and develops cutting edge military technology.

Some experts note, however, that cloaking devices that could enable military vehicles and aircraft, let alone spaceships, to become completely invisible to the enemy are likely to remain elusive for the foreseeable future.

John Pendry, the Imperial College physicist, said that light-shielding covers would have to be customized to match the properties of each and every object they hide.

It would be still more difficult to devise shields that could cope with all wavelengths of the visible spectrum—from red to violet light—and not just a single color.

Types of invisibility shielding previously proposed by scientists depend on advanced camouflage systems, rather than objects being made to look undetectably tiny. Such systems involve light sensors that create a mirror image of the background scene on the concealed object.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...visibility.html

<b>"You got me all wrong Mudd...i don't like anyone.</b><img src=newicons/saevil.gif border=0 align=middle>"
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Next up: warp drive, shields, transporters, phasers, photon torpedoes, and replicators

"The worst football halftime show is still better than a soccer game." - Ron "Tater Salad" White.

ASpilots weve had that technology since the 40's

Its called.....






















...Raybans. once you slip them baby's on Your invisible..

...Hey man have you seen Elvis?

"RickUSN-

That was intelligent and useful Mudd.

But it certainly is what Ive come to expect.

Mindless babbling with no intent to either enlighten or inform.

Sounds like it'd make repo work alot easier, Snipe: make that vehicle so small you could just slip it into your pocket! <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=newicons/anim_lol.gif border=0 align=middle>

So, you have trouble. We all have trouble. Build a bridge and get over it.

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Seems that technology has been around for a long time. In the second world war there was The Philedephia Experiment. And I know I know I know that we are all non conspiracy oriented here but.............you cant deny a whole lot of people swear that the Navy made a destroyer disappear at the docks. I guess it would be more realistic to say that the navy supposedly had in its employ Von neuman, Tesla and Einstein. There is some hard evidence that is definetly weird from alot of people that dont have anything to gain. And of course there is a lot of nut balls.

Sorry I wasnt trying to hijack this thread.

By this time tomorrow I shall have gained either a pearage or Westminster Abbey........Nelson

Edited by - Hawg166 on Mar 04 2005 1:52 PM

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If you've altered an object in such a way that light doesn't bounce off of it, that still doesn't mean you can see <i>behind</i> it, probably just that the object will appear uniformly pitch black. Applying this to military vehicles, it might be provide useful camoflauge or be otherwise useful for night time operations, but probably would be nothing revolutionary. However, if the same technology can be used so that radar isn't reflected either, then that could be an enormous improvement over existing stealth technology, and one that could be potentially applied to ships and missiles as well. Just my two cents.

-Beans

http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm909.html

The Philidelphia Experiment (Project Invisibility)
Category:(Mysterious) Created:(8/28/1999 10:35:00 PM) Viewed (75368 times)
Project Rainbow was allegedly an experiment conducted upon a small destroyer escort ship during World War II, both in the Philadelphia Naval Yard and at sea; the goal was to make that ship invisible to enemy detection. The accounts vary as to whether the original idea was to achieve invisibility to enemy radar or whether the prize sought after was more profound: optical invisibility. Either way, it is commonly believed that the mechanism involved was the generation of an incredibly intense magnetic field around the ship, which would cause refraction or bending of light or radar waves around the ship, much like a mirage created by heated air over a road on a summer day. The legend goes on to say that the experiment was a complete success... except that the ship actually disappeared physically for a time, and then returned. They wanted to 'cloak' the ship from view, but they got de-materialization and teleportation instead... It has been claimed that the Philadelphia Experiment was partly an investigation into how Albert Einstein's 'Unified Field Theory for Gravitation and Electricity' might be used to advantage in the development of electronic camouflage for ships at sea. Einstein allegedly published his Unified Theory around 1925-27 in German, in a Prussian scientific journal, but it was later withdrawn as incomplete. This research was aimed at using intense electromagnetic fields to mask a ship from incoming projectiles, mainly torpedoes. This was later extended to include a study of creating radar invisibility by a similar field in the air rather than in the water. The story begins in June of 1943, with the U.S.S. Eldridge, DE (Destroyer Escort) 173, being fitted with tons of experimental electronic equipment. This included, according to one source, two massive generators of 75 KVA each, mounted where the forward gun turret would have been, distributing their power through four magnetic coils mounted on the deck. Three RF transmitters (2 megawatt CW each, mounted on the deck), three thousand '6L6' power amplifier tubes (used to drive the field coils of the two generators), special synchronizing and modulation circuits, and a host of other specialized hardware were employed to generate massive electromagnetic fields which, when properly configured, would be able to bend light and radio waves around the ship, thus making it invisible to enemy observers. The experiment, said to have taken place at the Philadelphia Naval Yard and also at sea, took place on at least one occasion while in full view of the Merchant Marine ship S.S. Andrew Furuseth, and other observation ships. The Andrew Furuseth becomes significant because one of its crewmen is the source of most of the original material making up the PX legend. Carlos Allende, a.k.a. Carl Allen, wrote a series of strange letters to one Dr. Morris K. Jessup in the 1950's in which he described what he claims to have witnessed: at least one of the several phases of the Philadelphia Experiment. At 0900 hours, on July 22nd, 1943, so the story goes, the power to the generators was turned on, and the massive electromagnetic fields started to build up. A greenish fog was seen to slowly envelop the ship, concealing it from view. Then the fog itself is said to have disappeared, taking the Eldridge with it, leaving only undisturbed water where the ship had been anchored only moments before. The elite officers of the Navy and scientists involved gazed in awe at their greatest achievement: the ship and crew were not only radar invisible but invisible to the eye as well! Everything worked as planned, and about fifteen minutes later they ordered the men to shut down the generators. The greenish fog slowly reappeared, and the Eldridge began to dematerialize as the fog subsided, but it was evident to all that something had gone wrong. When boarded by personnel from shore, the crew above deck were found to be disoriented and nauseous. The Navy removed the crew, and shortly after obtained another. In the end, the Navy decided that they only wanted radar invisibility, and the equipment was altered. On the 28th of October in 1943, at 17:15, the final test on the Eldridge was performed. The electromagnetic field generators were turned on again, and the Eldridge became near-invisible; only a faint outline of the hull remained visible in the water. Everything was fine for the first few seconds, and then, in a blinding blue flash, the ship completely vanished. Within seconds it reappeared miles away, in Norfolk, Virginia, and was seen for several minutes. The Eldridge then disappeared from Norfolk as mysteriously as it had arrived, and reappeared back in Philadelphia Naval Yard. This time most of the sailors were violently sick. Some of the crew were simply 'missing' never to return. Some went crazy, but, strangest of all, five men were fused to the metal in the ship's structure. The men that survived were never the same again. Those that lived were discharged as 'mentally unfit' for duty, regardless of their true condition. So, what had begun as an experiment in electronic camouflage, ended up as an accidental teleportation of an entire ship and crew, to a distant location and back again, all in a matter of minutes! Although the above may seem fantastic, one must remember, that in the 1940’s the atomic bomb was also being invented.



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????

I was reading about this on various websites and the object has to be about the same hight as the wavelenght for it to be effective, so I don't think this is it.

"Oh good for a second I thought it was me, because I am blue, and I like to sleep, but if he is dead that would just be silly."-Caboose

wouldent there be a massive disturbance in the water as the hull "came and went"? I think the word "legend" desribes it better than anything else. IF it had worked the Navy would never have given up on such an advance and there would have been MANY more experiments to try and work it out.


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