Engadget http://www.engadget.com Engadget http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif Engadget http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[First electromagnetic 'black hole' built on earth, nobody raps about it]]>http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/first-electromagnetic-black-hole-built-on-earth-nobody-raps-a/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/first-electromagnetic-black-hole-built-on-earth-nobody-raps-a/http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/17/first-electromagnetic-black-hole-built-on-earth-nobody-raps-a/#comments
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.

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First electromagnetic 'black hole' built on earth, nobody raps about it originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blackblack holeBlackHolechinaelectromagneticholemeta materialMetaMaterialuniversity of nanjingUniversityOfNanjingSat, 17 Oct 2009 10:24:00 EST<![CDATA[Cloaking device puts the kibosh on cellphone interference]]>http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/cloaking-device-puts-the-kibosh-on-cellphone-inteference/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/cloaking-device-puts-the-kibosh-on-cellphone-inteference/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/cloaking-device-puts-the-kibosh-on-cellphone-inteference/#commentsThere has been plenty of research into cloaking devices, but while scientists are still working their way towards the visible light spectrum they seem to be having the best luck with microwaves. Most recently, a new metamaterial made from over 10,000 individual pieces of fiberglass has been used to cloak a bump on a flat mirrored surface -- the material prevents microwaves from being scattered, giving the RADAR (we're guessing it's a RADAR) the impression that the surface is flat. This has many possible applications, such as cloaking sources of interference to cellular communications. Unfortunately, the implication we most desire -- rendering us invisible during high society jewel heists -- has yet to become reality.

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Cloaking device puts the kibosh on cellphone interference originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>invisibilityinvisibility cloakInvisibilityCloakinvisiblejewel heistJewelHeistmeta materialMetaMaterialmicrowaveradarThu, 15 Jan 2009 21:20:00 EST<![CDATA[Cloaking device puts the kibosh on cellphone interference]]>http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/cloaking-device-puts-the-kibosh-on-cellphone-inteference/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/cloaking-device-puts-the-kibosh-on-cellphone-inteference/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/15/cloaking-device-puts-the-kibosh-on-cellphone-inteference/#commentsThere has been plenty of research into cloaking devices, but while scientists are still working their way towards the visible light spectrum they seem to be having the best luck with microwaves. Most recently, a new metamaterial made from over 10,000 individual pieces of fiberglass has been used to cloak a bump on a flat mirrored surface -- the material prevents microwaves from being scattered, giving the RADAR (we're guessing it's a RADAR) the impression that the surface is flat. This has many possible applications, such as cloaking sources of interference to cellular communications. Unfortunately, the implication we most desire -- rendering us invisible during high society jewel heists -- has yet to become reality.

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Cloaking device puts the kibosh on cellphone interference originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>invisibilityinvisibility cloakInvisibilityCloakinvisiblejewel heistJewelHeistmeta materialMetaMaterialmicrowavemobileradarstudiesThu, 15 Jan 2009 19:59:00 EST<![CDATA[Researchers create light bending material for invisibility cloak]]>http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/11/researchers-create-light-bending-material-for-invisibility-cloak/http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/11/researchers-create-light-bending-material-for-invisibility-cloak/http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/11/researchers-create-light-bending-material-for-invisibility-cloak/#commentshttp://www.engadget.com/media/2007/06/halo.jpg
We're only at the nano scale folks so you'll have to keep those high school fantasies of an invisibility-cloaked romp through the girls' locker room tucked away for now. Still, two teams of US government funded researchers under the direction of Xian Zhanga at UC Berkeley say that they've developed a material which can bend visible light around 3D objects, effectively making them disappear. While similar to the negative refractive properties of materials developed back in 2006, UCB's so-called meta-material is easier to work with and absorbs far less light than those earlier products. As such, the material could scale to the size of invisibility cloaks to hide objects such as tanks or mischievous boy-wizards. However, that day is a long ways off. In the short term, the meta-material will most likely find use in the far less interesting (to consumers, anyway) application of building better microscopes. Hey, Xian, picture of your invisible material or it didn't happen... oh, wait.

[Via BBC News]

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Researchers create light bending material for invisibility cloak originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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