Turkish scientists have developed a nanotech-based material that can render things invisible at specific electromagnetic frequencies.
Friday, 31 July 2009 15:53

A team of Turkish scientists have developed what is popularly known as "an invisibility cloak" or a nanotech-based material that can render things invisible at specific electromagnetic frequencies, the team head told the Anadolu Agency.

The team with the Nanotechnology Research Center in Ankara has become the fourth institution in the world to develop such "metamaterial," exotic composite materials that display properties beyond those available in naturally occurring materials.

"In order to make an object invisible you need to prevent the object from radiating electromagnetic waves or prevent those waves from propagating randomly. Turkey has become the fourth country to develop such a technology after the United States and two other European countries," said Prof. Ekmel Ozbay, head of the NANOTAM at the Bilkent University.

Ozbay said the new nanotech material would soon have numerous military and industrial applications.

"You can hide a tank and even a war plane by covering it with the invisibility cloak," said Ozbay, who is the only Turkish scientist to receive the prestigious Descartes science prize.