An
electromagnetic black hole -- which sucks in the light surrounding it -- has been built at Southeast University in Nanjing, China for the first time. The device works like cosmological black holes in that it has gravity which is intense enough to bend the surrounding space-time, causing any matter in the neighborhood to spiral inward and create the hole itself. The earth-built 'black hole' for microwave frequencies is constructed of 60 annular strips of
meta-materials (yes, that's the stuff of
invisibility cloaks). Each strip is an intricately etched circuit board which seamlessly and smoothly connects to the strips next to it, creating both a shell and absorber section to the device. When an electromagnetic wave hits the device, it is trapped and guided through the shell region toward the core, where it is absorbed. The device, which was created by Tie Jun Cui and Qiang Cheng, converts that absorbed light into heat, meaning that future possible applications could include new ways of harvesting solar energy. Hit the read link for a fuller description of this
truly bad dude.
posted October 17th 2009 10:24AM
If it can trap light and EMIT HEAT, it's not really a black hole. The nature of a black hole is not to emit anything. The only observable characteristic of it would be its gravitational pull.
I can't say that I have a lot of deep scientific knowledge but the first thing that came to my mind was the first step gravity fields such as artificial gravity and gravity biased shields for deflecting dust and small rocks in space so you can really move quickly through space with our having cumbersome armor plating. Maybe I'm reaching to far...
this is hilarious.
First of all-no balck hole.
This is some of the silliest reporting and misinformation i've ever seen
But feel free to believe anything you want, after all it's fun!
Notice how everyone posting at New Scientists understand the difference but once this hits the airways it becomes balloon boy.
Laura why don't you ask Balloon Boy to pilot his saucer into the eye of the Black Hole and report back for an Engadget Laura June exclusive!
This article is wrong. The way it's phrased makes it seem that this "black hole" will suck in matter when it doesn't do that at all. It merely makes light that hits the surrounding circuits become trapped inside the structure and directed towards the center. There is no gravitational force, and surrounding light will not bend unless it hits the device directly. This article was horribly written.
*dons HEV suit and wields crowbar*
Now if they could build a bigger one of these, tuned for cell phone frequencies, and install it in my local movie theater... Now were talking really useful tech!