We're Living In The Future!

Was fantasy. Now edging toward reality. How supercool is this? Invisibility!

Harry Potter may not have talked much about plasmonics in J. K. Rowling's fantasy series, but University of Maryland researchers are using this emerging technology to develop an invisibility cloak that exists beyond the world of bespectacled teenage wizards.

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.

The only thing that Kid Various wants to know is, when did Harry Potter's cloak become the de facto standard pop culture reference to invisibility rather than the far superior Romulan cloaking device????

Filthy Rom bastard de-cloaks off the port bow!