Scientists hide gold with 3D “invisibility cloak”

German scientists have created a three-dimensional “invisibility cloak” that can hide objects by bending light waves.

The findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, could in the future make it possible large objects invisible, but for now the researchers said they were not keen to speculate on possible applications.

“For now these…cloaking devices are just a beautiful and exciting benchmark to show what transformation optics can do,” said Tolga Ergin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Transformation optics use a class of materials called metamaterials that guide and control light.