Global Security Challenge

New Materials for Better Antennas...the invisible type

US Air Force put out an interesting call recently, it was for antennas made from metamaterials.  This seems to be just the beginning of applications for metamaterials, which DangerRoom.com describes as the material that might eventually lead us to invisibility cloaks:

"Prof. Sir John Pendry found that bundles of carbon fiber did not reflect radar in the usual way. Metamaterials gain their special properties because of the way they are structured, rather than their composition. This entails having a structure on the same scale as the wavelengths involved, so a metamaterial to influence light is going to require nano-technology, whereas radio waves and microwaves work on a scale of centimeters so metamaterials to influence them are far more practical in the short term."
While this type of antenna might be useful for UAVs, etc this better antenna could be helpful in other areas too, for example in helping set up more reliable communications systems for first responders.  

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