It seems like a magic trick. A man takes a paper clip and bends it in such a way that it merely resembles a crooked piece of wire.Then, he throws the clip into…
Using Metamaterials to Defy Our Common Understanding of LightTakuo TanakaAssociate Chief ScientistMetamaterials LaboratoryRIKEN Advanced Science Institute‘Metamaterials’ — artificially created materials with nanostructures designed to control light — are attracting considerable attention for the development of a range of new technologies, such as very thin eyeglass lenses, optical microscopes that will allow the observation of atoms, optical fibers with no transmission loss, and technologies that could make a person invisible. The functions of metamaterials are beyond our common understanding of natural phenomena. Amid intensifying global competition over the development of metamaterials, Takuo Tanaka, Associate Chief Scientist at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, and his colleagues succeeded in February 2009 in developing a technology that uses light to fabricate metal into a three-dimensional nanoscale structure, thus making significant progress in metamaterials research. “Metamaterials will surely be able to expand the world of light,” says Tanaka. Attention is now being focused on research into how to use metamaterials to defy our common understanding of light….
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Materials researchers at Penn State University have reported the highest known breakdown strength for a bulk glass ever measured. Breakdown strength, along…
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