The Invisible Man, Real?

European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak after they made an object disappear, a study published Thursday in the journal Science showed.

Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used their cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.

“It’s kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet — except this time the carpet also disappears,” they said.

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Quantum Communication with Nano-Antennas?

Miniaturized television aerials made from gold nanorods could provide a way to control light on a chip — opening up the channels of quantum communication.

If quantum computing networks are ever to become a reality, physicists must find a way to direct and harness the light emitted in quantum experiments. “We must know where and when photons are emitted if we want to collect them efficiently and perform advanced tasks,” says Jason Smith, an expert on quantum nanostructures at the University of Oxford, UK.

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Chilling Breast Cancer with Gas

BREAST cancers can be killed off by being frozen with streams of super-cold gas, scientists have discovered.

And, in a major breakthrough, the “ice-ball” created around a tumour by the injections not only kills it off but ensures the cancer does not return.

Fine needles are used to inject the freezing gas around the tumour in a technique known as cryotherapy, which means the patient does not need invasive surgery and suffers no major discomfort.

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General Fusion an Energy Breakthrough?

Can the dream become reality?

In an unassuming corner of Burnaby, a lush, green suburb of Vancouver, BC, I’ve arrived at the doorway of a company that could potentially change the world. But you’d never know it from the nondescript office park it’s situated in, or the bare bones furniture and office equipment I see once I open the door and announce my presence. It’s almost as if I’ve stepped back into the office of an insurance actuary circa 1973, right down to spartan wall decoration and all-male staff. Only the “General Fusion” sign on the door indicates anything out of the ordinary.
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