Scientists experiment with invisibility cloak
Researchers report that they have devised an “ultra-thin invisibility 'skin' cloak that can conform to the shape of an object and conceal it from detection with visible light,” according to a news release from U.S. Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The cloak’s surface was “meta-engineered to reroute reflected light waves so that the object was rendered invisible to optical detection when the cloak is activated.”
That cloak is microscopic, the news release said. But bigger things may be on the horizon.
“This is the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light,” said Xiang Zhang, director of the Berkeley lab’s Materials Sciences Division, quoted in the news release. “Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat. It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects.”
Unless you are a young wizard learning the tricks of his trade or a starship captain approaching a Klingon bird of prey, do you truly need invisibility? Yes, as it turns outs. The news release said that one day the cloak might hide the layout of microelectronic components in security encryption. It could also be used in three dimensional displays.
The research, by scientists at the Energy' Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley, was published Sept. 17 in the journal Science.
GETTING TO THE POINT: During the recent Republican presidential debate on Sept. 16 candidate Donald Trump raised questions about the safety of vaccines given to children. Alarmed, pediatricians are attempting to correct the record.
To recap, here are some of the remarks from politicians during the CNN debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California:
“You take this little beautiful baby, and you pump - I mean, it looks just like it's meant for a horse, not for a child, and we've had so many instances, people that work for me,” Trump said. “Just the other day, two years old, two and a half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”
Ben Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon who is also a candidate, said. “There have been numerous studies, and they have not demonstrated that there is any correlation between vaccinations and autism.”
Vaccines are very important, he added, especially “the ones that would prevent death or crippling. There are others, there are a multitude of vaccines which probably don't fit in that category, and there should be some discretion in those cases. But, you know, a lot of this is - is - is pushed by big government.”
And another doctor running for president, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said vaccines were among the greatest medical discoveries of all times, particularly the vaccine for smallpox.
But then he added, “I'm also a little concerned about how they're bunched up. My kids had all of their vaccines, and even if the science doesn't say bunching them up is a problem, I ought to have the right to spread out my vaccines out a little bit at the very least.”
By the next day, the American Academy of Pediatrics had a statement online.
“Claims that vaccines are linked to autism, or are unsafe when administered according to the recommended schedule, have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature. It is dangerous to public health to suggest otherwise,” the statement said. “There is no ‘alternative’ immunization schedule. Delaying vaccines only leaves a child at risk of disease for a longer period of time; it does not make vaccinating safer.”
Related:
Flashback: Return of the mumps
A primer: measles, mumps and rubella
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