Now you see it, now it looks like something else. Radar images might never be the same again, thanks to an illusion device that can change an object's appearance. The technology could ultimately be used to hide military aircraft.

The device is part of a growing family of metamaterials - structures designed to steer light along curved paths. They have already been used to make objects appear invisible and to disguise a gap between two objects.

Wei Xiang Jiang and Tie Jun Cui's team at Southeast University in Nanjing, China, have created a structure that changes the way radio waves interact with a copper cylinder so that it appears to be composed of another material altogether.

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