Fishnet cloak of negative refraction based invisibility

Let Me Feel Those Fishnet Hose

NYT and others report Berkeley researchers have used nano wires and fishnet, as described in Nature, to provide a cloak of invisibility. Based on the idea of negative refraction, the materials appear able to bend long-wavelength microwaves. A layered fishnet structure alternating between a metal and magnesium fluoride results in a metamaterial with a negative index of refraction for infrared light. Other Berkeley researchers in an almost concurrent publication in Science paper used a different approach, building an array of minuscule upright wires, which changed the electric fields of passing light waves. These both recall Retro-reflective Projection Technology (RPT) of 2003 from Tachi Lab. Which is maybe unweildy, but is still pretty much composable from off the shelf parts. In conversation with a poet colleague these advances were mentioned as portals perhaps to future powerful fields of poetic chorus. One recalls Gleem’s Invisible Shield too, and worries that Claude Rains’s ghost lurks. Worry Worry Worry.