Chinese scientist invents 'invisibility cloak'

(ECNS) -- Remember the invisibility cloak worn by Harry Potter? Chinese scientist Liu Ruopeng has turned J. K. Rowling's fantasy into reality by producing a special material that bends light waves and makes objects and people "invisible."

Made up of a special "metamaterial," the cloak is about the size of a bath towel and composed of thousands of glass-like fibers that deflect light from its surface. Whatever is under the cloak appears transparent, according to Liu, 30, who graduated from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou in 2006.

We can see an object when electromagnetic waves project on it, when a phenomenon called "scattering" occurs. Our eyes catch the scattered electromagnetic waves and identify the object.

The invisibility cloak shields objects from being seen by changing the direction of electromagnetic waves when the waves contact the invisible cloak. The waves will get its origional direction after passing by the glass-like fibers.