An invisibility cloak that actually works

Invisibility cloaking is no longer the stuff of science fiction: two University of Toronto researchers have demonstrated an effective invisibility cloak that is thin, scalable and adaptive to different types and sizes of objects. Professor George Eleftheriades and PhD student Michael Selvanayagam of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering designed and tested a new approach to cloaking - by surrounding an object with small antennas that collectively radiate an electromagnetic field. The radiated field cancels out any waves scattering off the cloaked object. Their paper 'Experimental demonstration of active electromagnetic cloaking' appeared November 12 in the journal Physical Review X and the story is making headlines around the world . (Read more about the cloak in the ,) "We've taken an electrical engineering approach, but that's what we are excited about," says Eleftheriades. "It's very practical." Picture a mailbox sitting on the street.