Scientists work on clothes you wouldn't be seen in

NICE CLOTHES can make you look good but soon they might also be able to make you invisible.

Scientists in Scotland have achieved an important advance in efforts to make fabrics that cannot be seen in ordinary light.

A kind of invisibility has already been achieved in the Stealth bomber which can be seen in visible light but is not easily seen by radar.

Producing flexible materials that can do something similar but in visible light is a much greater challenge, according to Dr Andrea Di Falco of the University of St Andrews.

The idea of being able to disappear from time to time using invisibility clothing was popularised in the Harry Potter films and books. Harry was able to move about unseen under his “cloak of invisibility”. However, actually producing such a thing represents a huge technical challenge.

Stealth works because molecules on its surface do not reflect radar waves. But the waves in visible light are much smaller, and so the molecules would need to be tiny to interfere with ordinary light.

Dr Di Falco and colleagues have brought the possibility a large step forward, however. They developed “metamaterials” small enough to interfere with light but then also found a way to make them flexible and suited to clothing. They publish their findings this morning in the New Journal of Physics.

They built a metamaterial that can manipulate the behaviour of light, something they call “Meta-Flex”, Dr Di Falco said.

They also found a way to avoid another pitfall; the need for flexibility for use as a fabric.

These specialised smart materials are usually produced attached to hard surfaces. Dr Di Falco and her team have found a way to free the metamaterials from the rigid surface, and they believe they can stack them to make a flexible material.

A cloak of invisibility would not be high on their agenda when looking to use their Meta-Flex. They could attach it to the surface of a disposable contact lens in the hope of developing “superlenses” for use as visual prostheses for people with impaired vision.