They create a meta-material that makes objects invisible

Scientists from St Andrews University (Scotland) have developed a new flexible and intelligent material called Metaflex that allows us to manipulate the behavior of light , and that could bring us one step closer to the long-awaited dream of creating an invisibility suit.

Metaflex is a meta-material, that is, an artificially created material that exhibits unusual electromagnetic properties, which depend on the designed structure and not on its composition. Specifically, the new meta-material is composed of meta-atoms capable of detaching themselves from a rigid surface. The authors predict that the grouping of these meta-atoms, small enough to interact with visible light, creates a flexible and independent material, as revealed in the New Journal of Physics in its latest issue.

Metaflex applications are not limited to making smart garments that hide us from others . They could also be used to develop disposable super contact lenses that would provide near-perfect vision .