This latest bummer involves two parts. The first is pretty simple. An invisibility cloak would only deflect specific wavelengths, either part or all of visible light. So if you were to blast it with, say, wavelengths in the IR or ultraviolet spectrum, then sensors could easily see through the cloak.

The second is a way to measure the radiation of electrons as they pass through the cloak. Identifying abnormal radiation patterns would get you caught and ruin your spy career.

Again, too, the researchers point out that you could easily detect a by "throwing a stone at it," or, for a much more humiliating "Gotcha!," tar and feathers.

There's still some small sliver of hope, at least. The researchers admit that this is all theoretical, so here's to hoping no one ever figures it out. Either way, both science and common sense keep trying to kill the dream. [ScienceNews.org via Slashdot

Fred's technique is similar to Liu's, but instead of painting himself, he uses large photographs. He goes to various spots in NYC, take a photo, then returns a few days later with a poster-sized print of the photo. When he holds it up in front of him, he nearly vanishes into his surroundings, save for some giveaway feet and shadows.

[DesignBoom via Neatorama]

With paint! Yes, Bolin paints his whole body to blend into the background, which is incredibly impressive yet also pretty impractical when you need to get invisible quickly, without the benefit of many hours of planning and work ahead of time. Still, great stuff.

[Galerie Bertin-Toublanc]

The MIT Technology Review says that they both pulled their inspiration from the mind grapes of a British student who hypothesized that making objects look like a flat conducting sheet would successfully render an object invisible.

The basic idea is that objects hide under the mirror bump, and tiny silicon nanopillars on the surface of the mirrors steer light away from the object, making it—and the object it's covering—look flat. Technology Review likens this to hiding something under thick carpet.

That means, unfortunately, that this isn't an invisibility cloak we can run around in. These concepts follow suit with the original concept in thinking that a stationary, conductive sheet would work much better for rendering things invisible. So we all can't start skipping out on our dinner bills quite yet.

Still, you can't overlook the importance of taking little steps towards creating an invisible man. Invisibility is cool, even if just a concept in a lab somewhere. [Invisibility Cloak One and Invisibility Cloak Two via MIT Tech Review via KurzweilAI]

Simply named Invisible, this erased torso pattern is available on a short sleeve or long sleeve tee. But before you get too cocky and attempt an infiltration of the girl's locker room, remember, females have excellent eyesight and can spot those little grey boxes a mile away.

And another word of warning: semi-transparency is not immune to knife attacks or gunfire.

With these caveats in mind, Invisible can be yours for $24. Use the power responsibly. [redbubble via FashionablyGeek]

Waves pass along the radial corridors, interacting with the pillars and producing forces that pull the water away from the innermost ring. The water is then pushed out of the cloaking area as if it had not encountered anything at all. The circular formation could be used to protect anything from oil rigs to islands, though very few islands can probably afford the amount of pillars needed to make this effect work. [New Scientist via Dvice]

But wait...apparently the anti-cloak can actually work to make the invisibility EVEN BETTER. OK, we're listening...

The flaw with the current (presumably scalable) methods of creating invisibility cloaks is that when the light bends around the user, that means the user is in complete darkness with no way to see the world outside.

Needless to say, this isn't what we had in mind at all.

With the anti-cloak, a tiny bit of the invisibility cloak could allow light in for a peep hole. And positioned correctly, such holes could usher in an entirely new era of espionage and/or lingerie. [ScienceDaily]

In layman's terms, the metamaterials developed by Zhang and his cohorts at UC Berkley scatter the visible light that hits them using a mixture of metal and circuit board materials like ceramic, Teflon and fiber composite. The scientists are using these materials to bend light around 3D objects, kind of like water around your ankles in a shallow river (yes, even cankles!), so they don't create reflections, shadows or Kevin Bacon impersonations.

More info on this latest invisibility discovery will be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science [The Associated Press]

The device works by redirecting light rays around the object and setting them back on path out the opposite end. So as far as one can tell, the light moves in a perfectly straight path instead of reflecting off the object as it normally would (or so our third grade science teacher would oversimplify the concept). And it's built from surprising materials: gold and plastic, arranged in concentric rings, granting them the ability to ripple/dominate light.

While the technology is not anticipated to work in three dimensions, the more depressing notion is that true invisibility is not at all possible, since even this solution would create a window glare effect. But fret not, readers, as other technologies are on the horizon. Their name? Nanocameras. [newscientist]

A cloak made of those materials, with a structure designed down to the submicroscopic scale, would neither reflect light nor cast a shadow.

Instead, like a river streaming around a smooth boulder, light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation would strike the cloak and simply flow around it, continuing on as if it never bumped up against an obstacle. That would give an onlooker the apparent ability to peer right through the cloak, with everything tucked inside concealed from view.

The authors of the study that posits the cloak say that "[They] will have a cloak after not too long." – John Biggs

Early 'Invisibility Cloak' Could Be 18 Months Away [CBS]

Invisibility Cloak [RealTechNews]