Invisibility Cloak for Heat

Researchers have devised ways to force light rays to detour around an object in a way that is reminiscent of the invisibility cloaks of science fiction. Now a team reporting in Physical Review Letters demonstrates that they can similarly manipulate the flow of heat on a sheet of metal to hide a large obstruction in the sheet. Although heat cloaking as such does not have a clear practical use, the same principles could potentially be used, for example, to guide the flow of heat or electricity, or the diffusion of chemicals.