Scientists have presented a paper which lays out design specs for materials that they say will be able to bend electromagnetic radiation around space of any size and shape.
Invented six years ago, the man-made materials are embedded with networks of exceptionally tiny metal wires and loops.
The structures refract, or bend, different types of electromagnetic radiation—such as radar, microwaves, or visible light—in ways natural substances can't.
"[Metamaterials] have the power to control light in an unprecedented way," said Sir John Pendry, a theoretical physicist at England's Imperial College London.
"They can actually keep it out of a volume of space, but they can do so without you noticing that there's been a local disturbance in the light."
