Reuters / Mike Segar
The Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, New York, is seen in this April 6, 2010 file photo. An "invisibility cloak" proposed by researchers could protect such plants from earthquakes.
By John Roach
For several years, scientists have worked on real-world invisibility cloaks akin to the one that shields boy wizard Harry Potter from light waves. While that's neat-o and all, a research group in Potter's homeland thinks a similar trick can protect buildings from earthquakes.
The group, led by mathematician William Parnell at the University of Manchester, has shown that cloaking components or structures in pressurized rubber would make them invisible to the powerful waves produced during a temblor.
Instead of shaking the structure, the waves would pass around it, protecting the building and anything within it.
"We showed theoretically that pre-stressing a naturally available material ? rubber ? leads to a cloaking effect from a specific type of elastic wave," Parnell said in a news release.
The research shows an ability to control the direction and speed of these waves. This ability could be useful in nano-applications, such as in electronics, he noted.
"If the theory can be scaled up to larger objects, then it could be used to create cloaks to protect buildings and structures, or perhaps more realistically to protect very important specific parts of those structures," he said.
Findings are published in Proceedings of the Royal Academy A.
More on invisibility cloaks:
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website and follow him on Twitter. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
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