May 29, 2012 Invisibility, once the subject of magic or legend,
is slowly becoming reality. Over the past five years
mathematicians and other scientists have been working on devices
that enable invisibility cloaks -- perhaps not yet concealing
Harry Potter, but at least shielding small objects from
detection by microwaves or sound waves. A University of
Washington mathematician is part of an international team
working to understand invisibility and extend its possible
applications. The group has now devised an amplifier that can
boost light, sound or other waves while hiding them inside an
invisible container. "You can isolate and magnify what you want
to see, and make the rest invisible," said corresponding author
Gunther Uhlmann, a UW mathematics professor. "You can amplify
the waves tremendously. And although the wave has been magnified
a lot, you still cannot see what is happening inside the
container." The findings are published online this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As