"Time Cloak" Makes Event Invisible
The theories of relativity show that gravity can cause time to slow down, but research published in the journal Nature seems to have found a way to make time stop entirely by bending light, essentially draping an invisibility cloak over an entire event.

"They're not just talking about a device that would make an object invisible. Instead, the idea behind space-time cloaking is, for a brief period of time, to make an event undetectable by light," CNN.com's Light Years blog explains. "So far, scientists can do it for a small fraction of a second, but all kinds of quirkiness would ensue if technology could take the concept to the extreme."

To create the time cloak, researchers from Cornell University are using devices known as "split-time lenses," which slow down part of a light beam while speeding up another part to create a gap that can then be put back together. The beam would not detect any event within that gap, while observers would not notice the gap in the first place, making it seem as if nothing ever happened during the gap's duration.

The system relies on fiber optics to manipulate the light beams. As one beam is fired at a probe, a strong pulse laser inside specialized fiber optic glass crosses the beam, altering its frequency and wavelength so that it changes velocity and creates a gap. A second pulse laser on the other side of the gap reverses the effect, restoring the beam to its original properties. In experiments, the probe was unable to detect the time hole or anything that happened within the time hole.

"Other newly created invisibility cloaks fashioned by scientists move the light beams away in the traditional three dimensions. The Cornell team alters not where the light flows but how fast it moves, changing in the dimension of time, not space," the Associated Press reports. "They tinkered with the speed of beams of light in a way that would make it appear to surveillance cameras or laser security beams that an event, such as an art heist, isn't happening. Another way to think of it is as if scientists edited or erased a split second of history. It's as if you are watching a movie with a scene inserted that you don't see or notice."

Currently, scientists can only hide an event for 40 trillionths of a second. Increasing the length of time that could be covered by the time cloak would require significantly larger machines, with an array 18,600 miles long needed for a full second of invisibility. However, the technology does have some present-day applications, as it could be used to add a packet of information to a high-speed data transfer without interrupting the flow of information.

10 Common Misconceptions Debunked
Is the Great Wall of China really visible from space? Do people only use 10 percent of their brains? Is bottled water actually safer or healthier to drink than sipping straight from the tap?

The following video, courtesy of science-minded time-management coach C.G.P. Grey, attempts to debunk 10 of the most common myths and misconceptions prevalent in society today, all in less than four minutes:

Magnetic Soap Could Scrub Away Oil Spills
A team of scientists recently unveiled the first liquid soap that can be controlled by magnets. This new cleaning agent may prove hugely beneficial to the environment, as it could be used to clean up oil spills without leaving behind detergents and other chemicals that could harm surrounding wildlife.

As detailed in the German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom dissolved iron particles in water containing chlorine and bromine ions, which are typically found in household cleaning products like mouthwash and fabric cleaner. The iron particles clumped together into iron nanoparticles that created a metallic center within the soap, allowing it to be manipulated through magnets.

"Ionic liquid surfactants — made up of mostly water with some heavy metals such as iron bound to halides such as bromine or chlorine — have been suggested as potentially controllable by magnets for some time, but it's always been assumed that their metallic centers would be too isolated within the solution, preventing the long-range interactions required to be magnetically active," according to Wired U.K.

A major challenge in cleaning oil spills with traditional soaps is that removed oil is replaced with soap, which can be disruptive to native ecosystems. However, magnetic liquid soap could be easily removed from an ecosystem after being introduced, making it ideal for environmental clean-up and water treatment projects.

"Magnetic soaps could also have a range of industrial applications thanks to their ability to change properties such as electrical conductivity or melting point at will with a magnetic on/off switch," New Scientist's One Per Cent blog explains. "These properties are normally altered by adding an electric charge or changing the pH, temperature or pressure of the substance, meaning they cannot be reversed."


Have a great weekend, folks.