Scientists work on disappearing technology

ROME, July 11 (UPI) -- The science fictional invisible man is a step closer to reality now that U.S. and European scientists have created a way to bend light around objects.

The researchers' breakthrough in invisibility research is the creation of acoustic plasmon. Mario Rocca of Genoa University in Italy said the plasmon, a supercharged variation of electrons, could be used to make new materials that light can be bent around, ANSA reported Wednesdsay.

Rocca said U.S. scientists have managed to do this with tiny objects using extremely small light wavelengths, not in the range of visible light.

"But in principle it should be possible for visible light too, and we should be able to hide fairly big objects," Rocca said in the journal Nature. "We can see the prospect of the plasmon being used to refract light right around an object, making it perfectly invisible".