Scientists from Imperial College London have claimed it's possible to make an invisibility cloak that hides events, rather than objects.
Named the 'spacetime cloak', the cloak uses electromagnetism to hide events from observers. This works by changing the speed of light so the light rays carry information around and past the event, essentially concealing it in a pocket of reality.
But this sci-fi concept is far from becoming an everyday phenomenon. The scientists could only realistically accomplish this inside fibre optics, and the calculations mean that it could only work in a vacuum. Not only that, but they would have to make the light rays travel FASTER than the speed of light, a difficulty in itself! And finally the cloak would only work in one direction, which would only work if the observer was stationary, or it was used to fool a camera.
So will Harry Potter wannabes be rushing out to buy spacetime cloaks this year? Well, no, unfortunately not. The science is far from practical at the moment. But we are a step closer.
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