Time Cloak Can Make 'Events' Simply Vanish!

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Got caught taking that last cookie from the jar or glancing at a neighbor's paper during a mid-term? How often have you wished you could simply make that moment vanish? Believe it or not, scientists have now figured out a way to make that wish a reality.

The Time Cloak which was spearheaded by Moti Fridman, a researcher at New York's Cornell University, uses the same principal as that applied when trying to conceal an object - Light wave manipulation. While concealing an object involves bending the light, concealing time, involves changing the speed of light.

To demonstrate the 'disappearance' the team conducted an experiment inside a fiber optic cable, fitted with two special lenses. They began by passing a beam of green light through it. When it hit the first lens, the light split into two speeds - One a little slower than the other. While that was going on, they quickly beamed a red laser through the cable. However, since it occurred precisely at the moment the light split, it was 'invisible' to the audience, making it seem as though the 'event' had never happened.

Further down, another lens helped put the light beam back together so that when it emerged on the other side of the cable, it appeared as though nothing had happened.

According to the scientists the closest analogy to this is what happens when a movie is edited. The director cuts out frames that he doesn't think are relevant and then, splices the rest of the movie back together, like the scene(s) never happened.

The best part is, that since 'Invisibility cloaks' work by bending light, scientists see no reason why the two could not be used simultaneously - That is, an 'invisible' person could perform an 'invisible' action, and nobody would know any better.

However, before you get your hopes up, be warned that the demonstration that hid the beam of red light lasted for all of 40 trillionths of a second or 40 Pico seconds - not enough time to even bat an eyelid. But while scientists may never be able to stretch the time far enough for you to finish a cookie, they may be able to extend it enough to hide transmission of top-secret data, something that would be quite valuable to government officials. We just hope that some day they are able to do more than that - don't you?

Resources: gizmondo.com, msnbc.com

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464 Comments
  • wickedover 13 years
    omg how cool shame it was so quick tho
    • lol!!!!!!over 13 years
      that is awesome !!! I hope they don't find the way to hide a whole person. It would be a lot easier for the criminals
      • OMG!!!!over 13 years
        oops forgot an avatar
        • OMG!!!!over 13 years
          WOW I LOVE LEARNING BOUT STUFF LIKE THAT
          • Cookiemonsterover 13 years
            Wow!
            • Traceyover 13 years
              I've learned that scienetist are exposing new experiments in the world that people would have thought were impossible to invent. The most interesting part is how people think it's their imagination instead of considering that what they saw was real. They would believe it was just a flashback because their not used to seeing normal people dissapear so quickly. If I would be able to sneak another brownie out of the kitchen then i would buy the invisblity cloak immediantly. I would change nothing about this article , it's amazing what people can do and change in 2012.
              • Kristin p. over 13 years
                this article is very interesting to me because i was thinking about the pass like if i did something wrong and i got in trouble for it i can go back and do the right thing and i don't have to worry about what happed cause i never did nothing wrong . if i could re-write this article i would not put all that stuff in it i would just put the main article in it in stead of putting stuff we really don't won't to now about : )>
                • matt d.over 13 years
                  i read about how they have made a "invisible cloak" and how it would work and what it can do. it says it can make you invisible but can it really? it also only works for 400 trillionnths of a second that is a real short time but i think if i tried it out for myself i would be impressed by it and if i could re-write this i would put down 1 more paragraph about a example or story WITH pictures to have good evedince and proof
                  • charlieover 13 years
                    I don't know if i beilieve that because once you do something there's no It never happened.
                    • matt d.over 13 years
                      wow that would be so fun to have to have!!!!!!