The costume is invisible from silk

In the past people wore silk dresses to stand out from the crowd, and in the next few years we could wear the same thing to disappear in the crowd.

Metamorphic metamaterials from silk can cover the human body, something other metamaterials do
Can not do it. (Photo: supersilk.com)

Light is electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths located in the spectrum that the human eye can see (from 400 nm to 700 nm). Any object will become invisible if it is not exposed to electromagnetic radiation. To make the object invisible, humans must bend the light or block its path so that it cannot reach the object.

Invisible materials, along with materials that fully absorb or reflect light, are classified as metamaterials. Unlike conventional materials, metamaterials have special properties thanks to the physical structure, not the chemical composition.

Scientists who have built many metamaterials have the ability to 'turn' objects, but they only work for large wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum. But, according to Discovery News , scientists at Tufts University and Boston University in the United States have recently studied how to fabricate silk-stealth metamaterials. A special feature of this material is that it can cause objects to be invisible to small wavelengths of light, even in the spectral region that the human eye cannot see.

To create silk-based metamaterials, experts from Tufts University and Boston University arranged tiny gold strands on silk. On every cm2 of silk they set up to 10,000 gold threads in a certain style.

When ordinary silk is exposed to electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths reaching trillions of hertz, light passes through it. But with silk metamaterials, similar electromagnetic radiation cannot pass. When researchers put metamaterials on human skin, it still prevented light.

The advent of silk-based stealth materials will help scientists develop a wide range of military and medical applications.

'Silk can cover the human body, which current stealth metaphors ca n't do , ' said Fiorenzo Omenetto, a Tufts University scientist.