A partnership between Duke University and Boston College turned out to be very beneficial for the science world, as they obtained a metamaterial that absorbs all the light it gets (no, it doesn’t make things invisible), thus capable of generating more energy even than the solar cells.
It can’t be used as a camouflage, as it’s simply black, but scientists surely have other applications to put it to work into. The metallic material absorbs both the magnetic and electrical properties of electromagnetic waves over a certain frequency range, thus turning the light into heat. And as many of us already know, there are just a few sources of energy more efficient than heat.
The fact that science still finds new ways to produce electricity is laudable, but in the same time, it shows us that we have much to learn and that many unexploited areas of science are waiting to be unveiled. Meanwhile, it will surely be interesting to see how this discovery will evolve.
RSS
June 14th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Yeah, absorbing all light would make it black.
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jeff reply on June 15, 2008 12:55 pm:
you took the words out of my mouth.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:02 pm:
you took my breath away
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:28 pm:
you took my breath away!
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bloody cherry reply on June 16, 2008 5:55 am:
you took my virginity away!
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lolzors4dinner reply on June 16, 2008 4:12 pm:
i ate your cherry
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lol reply on June 17, 2008 8:26 pm:
i took your mudkipz away
Votecoffee reply on June 16, 2008 11:08 am:
Hey, they developed black paint and convert heat to electricity! That’s new… : ( I don’t think they’ve really done anything to make a material that absorbs light and makes heat. Heat conversion is not the same as electric conversion. Converting light to heat and heat to electrcity is not new. I don’t think I wouldapplaud this just yet till I see real evidence it’s more efficient.
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bpeterson272 reply on June 26, 2008 7:01 pm:
Well, black would result if ALL light was completely absorbed. It is clear that at least yellow light is being reflected. I suspect we will find that, should some wavelengths of light truly be completely absorbed, they are not in the visible region of the EM spectrum. If this claim is true, it will be the first truly black body I have ever seen.
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Anonymous reply on June 26, 2008 7:14 pm:
Having read the many posts below, it’s time to start a thread on using water as a fuel.
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June 14th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Normally you would be correct in thinking this as a material usually absorbs some light and the rest either passes through or bounces back. If this material truly absorbs ALL light then no light would be re-transmitted back to your eyes thus making it invisible. This is an unlikely scenario and this material while maybe has a high efficiency could not perform such a feat (citing the laws of thermodynamics). Still this will be a technology to watch.
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me3 reply on June 15, 2008 4:44 am:
invisible object allow light to pass through them. this material is black.
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Jack reply on June 15, 2008 4:57 am:
If this material truly absorbs ALL light then no light would be re-transmitted back to your eyes thus making it VERY BLACK - Not invisible.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:04 pm:
as opposed to extremely black? or sort of black? why not a little black… I’d appreciate if you could backup your theory with some data… perhaps a double blind study of some sort and charts showing some sort of bell curve like distribution… bell curves always make studies look legit
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me3 reply on June 15, 2008 5:02 am:
@me2: If the material truly absorbs ALL light that hits it, it would be black. Blackness occurs when no light is reflected by an object - this is why, in thermodynamics, a material such as this (one which absorbs all electromagnetic frequencies) is called a blackbody.
While you are correct in stating that no light from the object would reach your eyes, the object *would* block light from all other objects behind it. Thus, instead of seeing the “invisible” object, you would see black there. Therefore, it would not be invisible - just black.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:06 pm:
moisture is the essence of wetness! I mean blackness… ahhh charlie murphy… darkness…
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Anonymous reply on June 15, 2008 5:08 am:
Wow, some gigantic retards in here. Absorbing all light makes it BLACK, not invisible. Jesus.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:06 pm:
Jesus has nothing to do with this debate so leave my homie JC out of this discussion!
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mike reply on June 15, 2008 11:55 pm:
Oh course this object will be invisible, but alas only in a completley dark room or against a completley black backdrop.
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Steve reply on June 15, 2008 5:18 am:
invisible no, black yes
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William reply on June 15, 2008 7:34 am:
A material is only transparent when light passes through it, hence you seeing the world behind it. If it absorbed all light, how does an image pass through from behind it? An object that truly absorbs all light is black, i.e. black holes.
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Brian reply on June 15, 2008 7:36 am:
Not Entirely invisible, It would basically appear as a formless shape as you couldn’t clearly see the edges. if it was invisible it would absorb NO light. or refract, defract, or bounce it.
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GGG reply on June 15, 2008 7:59 pm:
No, buddy, it would be a black shape with clearly defined edges. Think before you type.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:48 pm:
NO WAY it would just be out of this world!
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hrm reply on June 15, 2008 8:11 am:
Black is the lack of light, it wouldn’t look invisible because you couldn’t see through it… there would be a flat void of light, in other words a flat black surface that would not reflect at all. Besides, although it is not properly stated, I’m sure the article refers to what the naked human eye can see, as it does say, “electromagnetic waves over a certain frequency range”. Read the article more closely before you decide to try and sound smart.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:48 pm:
You’re A RACIST!!!!
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go back to school reply on June 15, 2008 8:22 am:
Wrong.
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Bret McDanel reply on June 15, 2008 8:25 am:
If it were true, as “me2″ states that if it absorbed all light that it would become invisible to our eyes, that would imply that our eyes are generating some beam that gets reflected back and that is how we see. The reality is that our eyes dont.
If it just turned into a “black hole” of sorts, as the article claims, then it would appear as a featureless black surface.
Now what law in thermodynamics states that black holes cant in essence exist (ie something that absorbs all light and does not reflect any)? To make it easier I have put the laws at the end.
The 2nd law seems to be most ideal. The third law is out, as we arent talking about very cold things, first law is out because we arent lowering the total energy in the universe, the 0th law does not seem to apply either.
In the 2nd law it only states that you cannot achieve more than 100% efficiency, for example if you leave your refrigerator door open, you will warm not cool your house, because the energy it takes to make cold gives off more heat than cold.
This device is claimed to convert light to heat, and a very specific spectrum of light at that. It is never stated that there isnt loss somewhere, the claim that you say violates the laws of thermodynamics is merely that it absorbs light make me question your knowledge. Further your lack of understanding regarding what invisible means (it means light would pass through from objects on the other side, not that its a “black hole” of sorts) causes me to further question what you said, so much that I felt like posting all of this so others might question it too. Isnt the intarweb fun?
Zeroth law: If two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.
First law: In any process, the total energy of the universe remains the same.
Second law: “energy systems have a tendency to increase their entropy” rather than decrease it.
Third law: As temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system approaches a constant minimum.
There is a tentative 4th law, but its not official yet.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:49 pm:
TL;DR learning is less fun than flaming the ree rees…
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Paul reply on June 15, 2008 10:00 am:
Wouldn’t it be black because there would be an absence of light coming from behind it? To make it invisible wouldn’t light would have to bend around it?
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:53 pm:
Check out some articles on the mathematical theory behind something called a “Super lens”… or something like that… here is a link for funtime happy reading!
http://www.eng.umd.edu/media/pressreleases/pr121807_cloak.html
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:08 pm:
watch out for the light behind you… it might try and rape you indabuht
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Tyler reply on June 15, 2008 10:04 am:
You obviously have made the wrong assumption. Just because something absorbs light, does NOT make it invisible. Look up your definition of invisible again since you’ve clearly made an incorrect judgment. The absence of light, and transparency are two different things my friend.
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Simon reply on June 15, 2008 10:40 am:
Just to clarify for you as what you have stated is wrong. IF an object absorbs all light then it would appear black to the human eye as no light is being reflected. It would NOT become invisible. I agree that this looks like an interesting technology to watch.
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megablue reply on June 15, 2008 10:44 am:
Absorbs all lights doesn’t make the object invisible… It just make the object appears to be unrealistic because it doesn’t reflects any lights.
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Ryan reply on June 15, 2008 12:05 pm:
Definitely if a material that absorbs all light is placed in front of you then you will have a big obstruction, you will not see past it. Only materials that are perfectly transparent or that bend light around their surface could ever be considered invisible.
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Anonymous reply on June 15, 2008 12:05 pm:
It would be entirely black… It would only be invisible if the light on the other side of the object reached your eye but, that light is absorbed by the material (on the other side).
Since no light is reaching your eyes, then you see nothing.
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scanner reply on June 15, 2008 5:57 pm:
I think what ‘me2′ means is this:
If the object absorbs all light in the room, thus making the room pitch black, one would not be able to see the object - effectively making it invisible.
Simple!
(and yes, I’m joking)
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:55 pm:
I think he doesn’t know what the word invisible means… just like how he doesn’t know how to spell retransmitted!
(and yes I’m joking I just think he has downs and somehow escaped his cage and was able to wrestle his mittens off with his teeth long enough to use the computer)
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:26 pm:
for an idiot you sure know how to make yourself sound knowledgeable! haha he even hyphenated retransmitted… Just b/c you registered for a thermodynamics class doesn’t mean you know what you are talking about bro… the “light” can be absorbed and changed into electrical and thermal energy and this doesn’t mean it has become the perpetual motion machine which I think you are trying to refer too…
regardless can anyone get more information on this joint project between these 2 institutions or is this article a vague load of B/S?
QUOTING me2:
“me2 says:
June 14th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Normally you would be correct in thinking this as a material usually absorbs some light and the rest either passes through or bounces back. If this material truly absorbs ALL light then no light would be re-transmitted back to your eyes thus making it invisible. This is an unlikely scenario and this material while maybe has a high efficiency could not perform such a feat (citing the laws of thermodynamics). Still this will be a technology to watch.”
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June 14th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Concur.
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June 14th, 2008 at 4:35 am
This is a huge achievement for solving today’s problems
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:58 pm:
I like to post obvious comments like a true politician to make myself sound important enough to not euthanize in tomorrow’s society which will clearly be run by the same type of people who love this kind of attention and wouldn’t even be sure how to survive if it weren’t for the people that they try so hard to control.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:59 pm:
you type too many run-on sentences with bad grammar… stop rambling
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:09 pm:
Thanks captain obvious… Have any more 1 liners for the group of academics who have taken a break from their intellectually stimulating lifestyle to enlighten us with their poastsses?
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June 14th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Ok, very rudimentary eye & physics lesson, to explain what an object that “absorbs all light” would look like.
Light that passes through the lens of the eye and hits the retina is absorbed by the rods & cones, and produces signals which the brain interprets as images. I can somewhat understand how, if that was all you knew, how you might think that an object that did not reflect *any* light might become invisible, but that’s not how it works.
With the absence of light, parts of the retina are not being stimulated, and this does not produce any signals for your eye to interpret as an image. This is what the color Black is.
This is why, when you are in a completely dark room, with no light to reflect off of the walls, you can’t see through them. The walls, and the room, appear entirely black.
For an object to actually be invisible, and not just to appear as completely black, your eye must get light from behind the object, so that it knows what image to display.
The object must either be transparent, like Air, and allow all light to pass through it, or it must bend the light around it, thus allowing you to see what is behind.
As for this new material, it is certainly exciting to consider the possibilities of its applications. It seems to me this is a step towards creating very high-efficiency solar panels, which would be great.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:59 pm:
I’ll show you rudimentary!!!
/raises fist with anger
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June 14th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
If that’s true, how did they take a picture of it?
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Anonymous reply on June 15, 2008 4:55 am:
They turned it off.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:00 pm:
You turned me on!
/winkwink
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me3 reply on June 15, 2008 5:03 am:
By aiming a camera at it and taking a picture. It’s black. Not invisible.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:00 pm:
whoa how do you know they used a camera and not a webcam! wait are they the same thing?
/goes off into the corner to ponder sum moar
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anon reply on June 15, 2008 6:04 am:
they hadn’t turned it on?
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wazza reply on June 15, 2008 7:16 am:
It only em waves in a certain frequency range which was not stated. Therefore it could be absorbing only infrared frequencies, uv, radio, who knows. But it certainly makes for the possibility of taking a picture of it.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:01 pm:
words
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Bret McDanel reply on June 15, 2008 8:27 am:
Chucara, you can take a picture while its off cant you? It would seem to me that only when its in its on state it would work in essence like a “black hole” for specific frequencies of light.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:02 pm:
NO WAI if they turned it off they would never be able to turn it back on and then their experiment would be a total failure and then they would lose all their funding and actually have to teach/lecture the same idiots who post about this stuff rather then research magic!
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Tyler reply on June 15, 2008 10:06 am:
The same way they can take a picture of anything. Why is it so hard for people to understand that true black is not a color? It represents the absence of color. Cameras can represent color on film!!!!
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Tyler reply on June 15, 2008 10:06 am:
Even black!
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Simon reply on June 15, 2008 10:45 am:
Good question, possibly the item in the picture isn’t the technology being discussed, if it where I would expect it to be black with the brass wiring showing. However as the article states the object absorbs “electrical properties of electromagnetic waves over a certain frequency range” then I would conclude that the initial claim that it absorbs all light is a miss-print and in fact that it is able to absorb all light over certain frequency range much like leaves on trees do, finally coming to the conclusion that this is why it appears to be a greenish color as its absorbing the most energetic wave forms the same ones green plants do, reflecting the only wave band not as energetic - green.
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June 15th, 2008 at 4:39 am
Is it me or does that picture not have anything black in it? I see strips of metallic “I” shaped pieces, which seems to exhibit the photoelectric effect (right hand side of picture, the pieces are shining), doesn’t that mean that its not absorbing all light? and the color itself seems to be closer to copper than black, which seems suspicious since the article itself said the material should be black.
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June 15th, 2008 at 4:41 am
so, what material is it? we’re kind of lacking in facts here. lots of things are black.
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June 15th, 2008 at 4:46 am
That’s not a picture of the material. As others have said, it would appear to a camera or your eyes as a solid black object.
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June 15th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Absorbing all light = black. Just because it absorbs all light doesn’t mean that it bends light. Think about it, invisible means the light from behind it would reach your eyes. If it absorbs all light, that wouldn’t happen. Thus, black.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:03 am
well thats easy…
“The metallic material absorbs both the magnetic and electrical properties of electromagnetic waves over a certain frequency range”
its the range that allows us to see the metal. it absorbs light only over certain frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, just like chlorophyll in plants. chlorophyll absorb colors that are red, yellow, and violet, leaving behind green to be reflected back, thus making leaves appear green to the human eye.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Wow, it sounds like they just made the holy grail of solar power, a photocell that converts nearly all of the light it receives.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:04 am
The key term here is “certain frequency range”. Negative permittivity materials are fairly selective in the electromagnetic wavelengths they are sensitive to. This is the true challenge in making an invisibility cloak, as the metamaterials would need to be sensitive across a huge frequency bandwidth.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:05 am
While reading this brief article I was slightly annoyed by the repetitive statements that the material is not invisible, but rather black. Then I noticed the multiple comments from people who obviously believe the material to be invisible, not black. Seriously, if they had taken the time to read a three-paragraph article…
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:05 am
What Chucara said is true. If it were to absorb all light, then it would appear completely black. If so, why is the colour of the material bronze?
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:08 am
yeah the electricity problem is solved
i hope it is.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:19 am
I find it interesting that this article describes a metalllic substance that everyone seems to assume is black in color and then the picture shows some cheeky-looking copper-colored stuff. Are we to assume that this is the metal the article is referring to?
A bit more explanation of the following statement might shed some light (pun intended) on the subject:
“The metallic material absorbs both the magnetic and electrical properties of electromagnetic waves over a certain frequency range”
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:21 am
If you hover your cursor over the picture, then it says that is it “Invisible Metamaterial”. Also, why isnt the picture black?
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:28 am
the material absorbs all energy only for a small range of frequencies. . this frequency range may not completely overlap the visible frequency range. which means, not all the light from the other frequencies are absorbed, some are reflected. thus, appearing visible.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:29 am
The same way they take a picture of anything else black. It’s not invisible.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:29 am
If they could make a meta-material like this that was as flexible enough to be a fabric, it could make some great winter clothing.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:35 am
You guys are fucking retards, if a material absorbs all wavelengths (within the visible range), then none of it will be reflected back to your eyes, meaning that it will be BLACK, not INVISIBLE!
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:42 am
How do you idiots end up on a technical website?
Don’t pester other users to explain simple concepts. Do your own research.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Okay, I keep hearing about all these technological advances, but not once have I seen them been put into play. Speed it up we don’t have that much time.
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June 15th, 2008 at 5:48 am
I love this type of article, it brings out the best in the internet but cripples my belief in the majority of humanity. Obviouisly the reporter (apart from pointing out the obvious) doesn’t understand what the scientists were trying to convey as what this article really says is that scientists found something that is black and heats up when exposed to light. Hooray, civilisation is saved by something a 4 year could tell you. I think the author is honestly having a laugh (or at least, for their sake, I hope so). As for you people who have already posted, are you all 5 or just reatrded? Here’s looking at you me2 and John, your guy’s mums know more about the physics of light and energy than you and they’re not even trying.
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Will it blend? And if it blends, how can you tell ?
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:24 am
So it absorbs light and turns it into heat and electricity. If it is a cost effective alternative to extant photovoltaic cells, we will see it’s commercialisation soon.
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:30 am
The material wasn’t activiated
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:10 pm:
in the year 2000… in the year Tooo Though Sand!
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Quite honestly, I’m really getting sick and tired of all these claims of newer and cheaper materials being able to generate electricity. For the past 5 years that’s all I have heard, but yet the cost of solar cells are STILL the same price. The “newer and cheaper” products still out cost the current solar cells. If these things are so cheap, why can’t a person that wants to go green do it without using up so much green?!?!?!
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Man, ill tell you how it is.
Screw oil. we dont need it.
The United States Government needs to take a state in the southwest, Arizona, New Mexico, what have you…
and cover the entire state with SOLAR PANELS.
We can generate all the electricity needs for North America and get rid of any oil dependance, and perhaps save our dying atmosphere before the sun fries the world to a crisp due to the gases we have released.
Hop to it
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:12 pm:
and then we can all ride bicycles too or cars with enormous solar cells on them too… b/c cars definitely aren’t a major reason for our dependence on oil as a form of energy…
nah Just Kidding…
Let me tell you how I’m just messing with you out of boredom!
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Great news, but where’s the sources.
This could be entirely made up, need sources and links to verify the news.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:13 pm:
First comment to make sense!
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June 15th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Yeah, with light reflecting on the material..
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:17 am
so does this mean it is possible to generate an lcd monitor with perfect black?
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:14 pm:
How do you generate nothing? Work for a financial institution!
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Seems like these guys neither know too much about what they are talking about, nor how to make a proper track back. Some sort of reference to where this information came from would be nice, maybe we could have a look at what was actually accomplished.
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:26 am
This material only absorb “light” electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency and then it releases it in the infra-red frequency. It does not absorb the electromagnetic radiation that we can see.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:15 pm:
This is based off of a picture which might not even be of a device which might not even exist?
I applaud your ability for reasoning!
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:34 am
how the hell they have a picture of it, if it absorbs all light shouldnt it be pitch black - -wat ever happened to infra dot tech. ne way
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:15 am
This is good and agree, but when will it be available? 2015? 2020? i doubt we’ll it till at lest late 2010 - all these great new inventions - all with 2 or more years production delay - really bugs me.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:16 pm:
coming to a theater near you
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:18 am
They did not take a picture of the material, they took a picture where the light is absent in some areas. You can’t actually see the object itself, only the absence of light.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:16 pm:
Please provide links of how I can go about contacting “they” or do you not really know who they are either?
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Doesn’t this make it a black hole? Wouldn’t anyone within a certain distance get sucked in?
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:35 pm:
haha holy christ these comments are getting crazy… I think the “reporter” heard some gossip about something… didn’t know how to actually get a real reference to the research/product that was developed… took a random picture of a circuit board from radioshack and then some asshat DUGG it up… It’s amazing how people are now talking about black holes… and all this other stuff… Hey here is an article about some new technology that was developed!
“Information was found”
go ahead now have a field day speculating what I am really talking about… explaining to others what you think I’m talking about… Rationalizing your beliefs and disbeliefs about the credibility of my description… hahaha go have a field day and happy father’s day! I wonder if Madalin Szemkovics works for the Associated Press…
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:23 am
wtf?! why aren’t the things in the picture BLACK then? is it not “on” or something?!
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:17 pm:
Clearly it is a weapon of mass destruction… If you believe that then all makes sense
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Wait, where in the blurb does it say _anything_ about generating electricity?
This is just an extremely black metal, which is really good at getting hot when you shine light at it.
Heat being the main way that energy is typically _lost_ in mechanical / electrical applications… it seems a few steps away from being the most wonderful solar cell invented.
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
A picture could be taken by illuminating it with light outside its “certain frequency range”. The photograph here doesn’t seem to be this, or at least it could use some kind of explanation so we know what it is that’s pictured.
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Chucara +1
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June 15th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Agreed- absorbing all light would make it black, not invisible.
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:04 am
So what is it?
Where is the paper?
Did I miss a link?
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:38 pm:
No the reporter never passed College Writing 101… She probably just knows some people who went to college and overheard her friends talking about some experiment they misunderstood but decided to discuss while passing around the Bong…
dotdotdot
interwebsisseriousbusiness fyi!
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:05 am
What it said is “The metallic material absorbs both the magnetic and electrical properties of electromagnetic waves over a certain frequency range”, there for it may absorb 100% of a given frequency, like say infrared light. It may not ba capable of absorbing the entire visible spectrum. But what parts it does absorb it does so with 100% efficiency.
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Chucara asked “…how did they take a picture of it?” in response to the statements that it “absorbs all light”.
Two things to think about.
First, is that an actual picture of the actual metamaterial the article is about? (it might just be a stock photo of A metamaterial, just not the right one) Obviously I’m not saying it isn’t, just bringing up the possibility.
Second, and far more importantly, it absorbs “over a certain frequency range”. The article never said what that range was, or even if it is in the visible light range. I’d guess that since there is apparently a photo of something that isn’t black, it doesn’t absorb visible light. (yet…)
Now I have a problem with the article headline. It says “New Material Absorbs Light Completely and Generates Electricity”. Yet the article declares, “…turning the light into heat.”. So the headline is either wrong, or misleading in that the material doesn’t generate electricity, it generates heat. (And of course, heat is usually used to generate electricity using what amounts to a steam engine. Not exactly high tech, but it works really well with heat sources.)
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:40 am
why can we see it in the picture then? i see what looks like copper with a red color and I see light reflecting off of it.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:39 pm:
maybe b/c it isn’t the actual picture of the material… maybe the material doesn’t exist? I’d like a proper writeup about this discovery if it actually happened so I can stop harassing the posters
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June 15th, 2008 at 10:22 am
It could just be a model of the material. I can’t see a way to take a photo of a object emitting to light.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:19 pm:
lol you think it is a model…
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June 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Somehow I find it hard to think the picture is directly related to what the article is about, seeing as it is labelled “Invisible Metamaterial”, with the article going on to say “no, it doesn’t make things invisible”.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:20 pm:
Somehow I find it hard to think that the author is not laughing her ass off… or crying in the corner wishing she really knew what she was talking about… then again she might just be skipping along in life oblivious yet happy… happy like a little bug… smug… under the rug…
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June 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am
“And as many of us already know, there are just a few sources of energy more efficient than heat.”
I’m sorry, what? Thermal energy is the worst form of energy and it’s difficult to convert into usable energy - consider that the main loss of energy in most devices (car engines, lighbulbs ect) is in the form of heat.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:44 pm:
lol yea isn’t it sad that most forms of energy that we do harness isn’t actually directly harnessed but it is the wasteful heat that is harnessed! Nuclear Energy heating up steam which then passes through turbines which turn generators which spin and then the magnetic fields passing through coilds cause induction which moves electrons or something a bit more advanced than that… haha whatever I never paid attention in class… but I think I paid enough attention so that my brain didn’t atrophy and turn into stone like some of the people trying to post and sound knowledgeable!
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June 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
anyone who thinks it should be invisible is a douche
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:44 pm:
NO U
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:14 am
What John says is correct, if no light is ‘bounced’ back to the eye. It will simply appear black, not invisible.
In the article it mentions that the material will absorb all electromagnetic waves in a particular frequency range. I suspect the way they took the photo was to use light waves outside of this frequency range to illuminate the material.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:46 pm:
I commend your attempt to help transfer knowledge to the people who would just keep asking random simple bad nonsensical questions and never see what potential such a “discovery” would have… Even if they did understand some of them would probably start rambling on about god and intelligent design…
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am
This article doesn’t deserve diggs, so stop digging it.
What frequency range does it absorb? How much does this differ from something else black in color with a matte finish? Turning heat into electricity is generally not an efficient process either.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:46 pm:
i <3 u
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:21 pm:
ALL frequencies!!! ALLL MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:37 am
@ Chucara: I think it’s just a stock picture.
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Where is the source article?
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 8:47 pm:
This person makes sense!
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June 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Wow, could it be? A solar panel that is actually cost effective. Golly gee.
JT
http://www.ULtimate-Anonymity.com
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June 15th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
@ Tom Featherstone- thermal energy is the “worst form” of energy? WTF? Need I remind you that without thermal energy, you would be dead? Thermal energy, in the form of wood being burned, etc., kept your ancestors alive for thousands of years. Just as useful as any other kind of energy.
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Tom Featherstone reply on June 15, 2008 3:11 pm:
jasontimmer; i’m talking about harnessing the energy. It’s simply difficult to covert heat to electricity.
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IWillEatYourBrains reply on June 15, 2008 7:38 pm:
Haha. You’re an fool :D. He is obviously calling it the worst form of energy, because it is very hard (and inefficient) to convert thermal energy into a usable energy like electrical energy.
I do hope you’re trolling good sir. If not, i would recommend you actually think about what is being discussed before making stupid comments.
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June 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Sunlight to heat? So…they’ve manufactured an equivelent to pavement. Astounding! Since when is heat an ‘efficient’ form of energy? It is more often than not a waste energy.
There is no mention of photovoltaics. Where is the supposed electricity coming from? This article is useless.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:22 pm:
posting was pretty useless… yet it didn’t stop you from indulging yourself!
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June 15th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
lol ME2 way to embarass yourself .. don’t try to explain things you don’t understand
stick with arts you hippie douchebag
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:23 pm:
as if someone who thinks like that could even be convinced he/she was wrong and then be embarassed
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June 15th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
It would be invisible if it was in front of a bigger thing made out of the same stuff.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:24 pm:
words…
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June 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
So, absorbing all light will make it invisible?
Oh, right, a million replied that it won’t. ENOUGH ALREADY, WE GET IT! You are all know-it-all vying for some form of a geek award. (insert Conan O’brien’s nerd impression) “How dare you, anonymous commenter!”
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:24 pm:
oh SIHT it’s the interweb police everyone run and hide behind anonymous
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June 15th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
What a load of crap. This technology will probably die down (at least from the view of the public eye) just like every other bit of efficient technology we ever hear of. It will either get lost, or stay in the development stage for a long time. Our infrastructure has not changed for so long and I don’t see how any of these things will change it. We keep sticking to the same traditional inefficient technologies and it seems like it’s gonna be a while before we change it, if we do at all.
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Bad science reporting.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:25 pm:
/hands the author a book on MLA
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June 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Absorbin lite will make it invisisble. Like on Star Trek seris 4 ep 5. When they use the light absorrbin materil to hide from the klingons.
you are al stupid i am right.
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lolzors reply on June 15, 2008 9:26 pm:
yes I too become invisible when I drink too much “lite” beer…
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
If you want it to absorb visible light, just paint it black
but boy oh boy, where can I get some of this for a solar stirling engine
Get a couple of concentrator mirrors shine it on the heating element(this stuff painted in black) and ppoof a megaton nuclear bomb for the heating
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Logically, absorbing all light makes the object, not visible directly, but we can infer its location by the absence of any visible thing. … A black nothingness obscuring all behind it, in respect to the viewer. … So, visible because of the absence of anything, it is not, in actuality visible. But we see it because we see nothing in it’s space.
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Imagine, if you will, one half of a giant warehouse in your mind. … One end totally open to the sun, and whatever lights you want to throw at the other end. The inside of this warehouse is coated, floor, ceiling and all walls with the black absorber. This walls, the floor, and the ceiling absorbs all energy, light heat, whatever. … Now imagine that you are entering the warehouse from the open, sunny side. … As you cross the threshold of black, yu can feel yourself supported, but you cannot really SEE the floor, or the walls, or the ceiling. … Now start running towards the unseen far wall. …
Would you stop before you hit the wall?
Or would you realize the wall was invisible?
Not transparent, mind you, but invisible.
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Never mind the color (anti-color) of the material, heat is the least efficient form of energy. Entropy can be thought of as the ‘quality’ of energy that is not created or destroyed. It is true we can use thermal energy, but heat is definitely NOT on the high scale of efficient energy.
Device Daily should hire a more technically adept writer to report on such topics.
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lolzors reply on June 16, 2008 12:59 am:
you are not the real lolzors!
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June 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Ok Maroons
Absorb all light = Black.
Black != Black Body.
Black Body absorbs all frequencies of radiation due to extreme gravitational gradient.
Heat is a lousy form of energy to store or try and use.
Nothing Absorbs 100% energy, not even a blackbody.
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June 16th, 2008 at 12:40 am
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080415185016.htm
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June 16th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Ok, seriously, I think everyone knows that its black, not invisible, please stop telling me.
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June 16th, 2008 at 2:19 am
only us, humans, to think we know all and everything. there is probably a trillion times a billion trillion and more than a trillion more times that, of things, that we will never really know anything about because of our arrogance.
and this is a cool product, can this be used to generate eletricty for ours homes, 100% free of polution??? now thats smart!
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June 16th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I am reminded of 2001: A space odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. Now if they can fashion that stuff into a perfect square and bury it in a moon crater they’ll have something worth writing about…
One interesting property of this type of material, Clarke imagined, would be an inability to cast a shadow upon it.
I wonder if it has applications in radar evasion?
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bpeterson272 reply on June 26, 2008 7:08 pm:
I should think so if it absorbs completely at radar wavelengths. That is a portion of the technological principles we employ now for B-2, F-17, etc.
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June 16th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
nice but whats the cost per square inch of this material?
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