--- title: Scientists Are Getting Closer to an Invisibility Cloak description: Scientists are getting closer to creating a real life invisibility cloak. canonical: https://time.com/4042506/invisibility-cloak/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-21T15:03:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:38.228Z article:section: Health og:title: Scientists Are Getting Closer to an Invisibility Cloak og:description: Some small breakthroughs are slowly moving the science forward og:url: https://time.com/4042506/invisibility-cloak/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Are Getting Closer to an Invisibility Cloak twitter:description: Some small breakthroughs are slowly moving the science forward twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Scientists Are Getting Closer to an Invisibility Cloak > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Tech Time: Is Face Scanning the Future of Security? [Watch (HLS stream): Tech Time: Is Face Scanning the Future of Security?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kCXAmgKD.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2015-08-24. Using Biometrics, some companies are making it so that you never have to remember a password again. But is it really the most secure method? TIME Tech Editor Alex Fitzpatrick weighs in._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 21, 2015 3:03 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 21, 2015 3:03 PM UTC Scientists are getting closer to creating a real-life invisibility cloak. A [new study](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6254/1310.short) published in the journal _Science_ shows scientists have created what they are calling a “ultrathin invisibility skin cloak for visible light.” The cloak has been shown to cover an object and—by manipulating certain wavelengths of light—render it invisible. Light plays a central role in how we see objects.[ According to the Los Angeles _Times_](http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-tiny-invisibility-cloak-gold-metamaterial-20150917-story.html), usually light bounces off of things and becomes distorted, which helps a person see the angles and curves of an object. However, the LA _Times_ writes that the cloak is covered with “nanoantennas made of tiny gold blocks of different sizes that can counteract that distortion, making it seem to an observer like the light is coming from a flat surface.” The cloak is 80 nanometers thick, which is a bonus since the study authors [say](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6254/1310.short) prior attempts have been too bulky and therefore difficult to scale up. Still, the current cloak only covers a very tiny object, so there’s a long way to go before people can make themselves invisible or hard to see. Other research teams are also looking into the creation of an invisibility cloak. In early July, University of California, San Diego researchers designed their own early version. “Invisibility may seem like magic at first, but its underlying concepts are familiar to everyone. All it requires is a clever manipulation of our perception,” Boubacar Kanté, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering [said in a statement about his work](http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/engineers%5Fgive%5Finvisibility%5Fcloaks%5Fa%5Fslimmer%5Fdesign). “Full invisibility still seems beyond reach today, but it might become a reality in the near future thanks to recent progress in cloaking devices.” ### The Wildest Concept Cars of 2014  Anybody can take Chevy's Chaparral 2x Vision concept car for a spin — anybody with Gran Turismo 6 for the Sony PlayStation, anyway, where the car is a playable download. Gene Blevins—LA DailyNews/Corbis  One day, we'll all finally get to ride those light-cycles from Tron. For now, there's Toyota's FV2 concept car. Joe Klamar—AFP/Getty Images  Doors? Where you're going in the Smart Brabus FourJoy concept car, you don't need doors. Bloomberg/Getty Images  The pickup truck hasn't really changed much in decades — until Volkswagen took it on with this Tristar concept car, which takes a pickup and makes it super offroad-friendly. Fabian Bimmer—Reuters/Corbis  Nissan's 3-seat electric BladeGlider concept car might actually make it to production, pretty rare for a concept car this wild. If a Jedi Knight drove a car, it would be the BladeGlider. Gene Blevins—LA DailyNews/Corbis  Toyota hasn't said much about its high-riding C-HR Concept crossover, but we know that it's purple. Very purple. Benoit Tessier—Reuters/Corbis  Maserati says its Alfieri concept car represents "the future of Maserati design." Too bad most of us can't conceptualize being able to afford a Maserati any time soon. Pierre Albouy—AFP/Getty Images  Mercedes-Benz's G-Code concept SUV comes covered in what the company calls "multi-voltaic silver" paint that's supposed to act like one big solar cell. It's all very green — err, "multi-voltaic silver." Kim Kyung-Hoon—Reuters/Corbis  It somehow doesn't feel like this car, designed by Russian artist Gosha Ostretsov, will fly off the shelves. But that's okay, because it's more art exhibit than commercial vehicle. Smityuk Yuri—ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis ## Transcript [ SOUND ] Look, nobody likes passwords. They're hard to remember, you forget them all the time. You have to ask companies to send you new ones, it's a total pain. But what if your face, your fingerprints, or even your eyes could replace passwords entirely. Using something called biometrics, a lot of companies are already doing Companies can identify you by your face, your fingerprint, your eyes, basically anything that you have that other people don't, it's unique to you. And that can let you get into your bank account, your computer, your phone, all without remembering a password at all. Lots of popular companies are trying biometrics. Apple and Samsung phones have fingerprint scanners that let you access your phone. Some Windows 10 computers can recognize your face so you don't have to enter in a password at all. And even some banks are experimenting with ATMs that scan your eye and lets you get into your bank account. Isn't that all better than remembering cupcake start 82? But are biometrics really safer then passwords? Researchers recently found that an older HTC phone was storing fingerprint scans without any real protection at all, meaning any app on that phone could access your fingerprint scan and do whatever with it That's not good. You can't change your fingerprint like you can change a password. If somebody happens to learn my Twitter password, I can go and change it really quickly. But I can't just burn off my thumbprint and get a new one. That would really hurt and I don't wanna do that. Ultimately maybe biometrics shouldn't replace passwords entirely. Maybe the two should work in tandem and you'll still have to remember a password, but your eyeball scan or your fingerprint can be an extra layer of security on top of that. So will biometrics create a whole new way of stealing your identity? It sounds really suspicious. If I can log into my computer with my face, what's stopping someone from holding up a picture of my face and getting into my computer? Well, it turns out biometric software is pretty good at Preventing that kind of trickery, and that means it's probably where were headed for the future of security. [ MUSIC ] Cool. 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