A physicist at the University of Texas Dallas has successfully created the elusive invisibility cloak immortalized in the pages of Harry Potter.
Ali Aliev, the researcher behind the feat, said he was able to make the cloak using carbon nanotubes, which look like thin strands of thread.
Mr Aliev told MSNBC: "We really can hide objects. ... We can switch for a short moment and make it disappear.”
In a video posted to YouTube, the strands are seen appearing and disappearing during a demonstration in Mr Aliev’s lab.
He told the network: “It's interesting for ordinary people, because usually [scientists] show something micro sized under some microscope. But here, in real time, real objects [were] disappearing.”
In Sweden, scientists are working on an invisibility cloak which could protect tanks from heat seeking missiles.
The new technology has scanners to read nearby buildings and terrain and can reproduce their pattern of hot and cold on panels on the hull of the vehicle.