‘Invisibility cloak’ to protect buildings from earthquakes

September 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have developed a new technique that uses data collected from earthquakes, potentially allowing the Earth's seismic activity to be mapped more comprehensively. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, developed the new method.

September 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of engineers from the Stanford University has designed a new earthquake-resistant structural system for buildings, which will not only help a multi-story building hold itself together during a violent quake, but also return it to standing up straight on its foundation afterward, true and plumb, with damage confined to a few easily replaceable parts. Professor Greg Deierlein, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, used the world's largest shake table to test a new structural design that lets buildings rock during earthquakes, then pull themselves into plumb when the shaking stops, confining damage to replaceable steel "fuses." During testing on a massive shake table, the system survived simulated earthquakes in excess of magnitude 7, bigger than either the 1994 Northridge earthquake or the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in California.

August 31st, 2009 LONDON - A five-strong group of scientists have developed a new technique that can monitor movements beneath the earth's surface to help understand how earthquakes behave. The scientists, led by Andrew Curtis, Professor of Mathematical Geoscience at Edinburgh University, used computers to simulate the motion of one earthquake at the location of another to discover more in-depth information about underground movements.

August 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research by scientists from the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson has determined that some slow-moving faults may help protect some regions of Italy and other parts of the world against destructive earthquakes. Until now, geologists thought when the crack between two pieces of the Earth's crust was at a very gentle slope, there was no movement along that particular fault line.

August 21st, 2009 LONDON - A University of St Andrews scientist has made fresh advancement in bringing Harry Potter's invisibility cloak closer to reality. Professor Ulf Leonhardt, who has won funding to develop a real version of the magical device, describes his work as the "ultimate optical illusion'.

August 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - It is now possible to bend the light along the corner of a building or even the profile of the eastern seaboard, for Boston College physicists have created a new metamaterial device that can guide electromagnetic waves around various objects. As directed by the researchers' novel device, these beams continue to behave as if travelling in a straight line.

July 10th, 2009 Philippines' most active volcano restive againMANILA, Philippines — Scientists say the Philippines' most active volcano is rumbling again while emitting steam and a strong glow at the summit crater that can be seen with the naked eye. State volcanologists say the frequency of volcanic earthquakes has increased on Mayon signifying the possible movement of magma below the surface that could lead to ash explosions and eventually eruption.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) have come up with a device called a dc metamaterial, which makes objects invisible under certain light. The device does so, according to the researchers, under very low frequency electromagnetic waves by making the inside of the magnetic field zero, but not altering the exterior field.

June 27th, 2009 LONDON - Let alone hiding persons or objects from prying eyes, future invisibility cloaks may even conceal buildings from the devastating effects of earthquakes, if physicists in France and the UK are to be believed. Stefan Enoch of the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France, is the researcher behind the "earthquake cloak" idea.

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered the presence of a natural deep earth pump that is a crucial element in the formation of ore deposits and earthquakes. The process, called creep cavitation, involves fluid being pumped through pores in deformed rock in mid-crustal sheer zones, which are approximately 15 km below the Earth's surface.

June 16th, 2009 LONDON - Magic carpets capable of hiding almost any object on earth may soon be a reality, with two separate research groups from the Berkeley-based University of California and New York-based Cornell University presenting interesting breakthroughs at the International Quantum Electronics Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, last week. "Carpet cloaks", which have sprung from the researchers' efforts, are being described as the first technology to succeed in hiding objects by deflecting light across a range of wavelengths.

June 11th, 2009 Washington, June 11 (ANI: Scientists have made a surprising discovery that typhoons trigger slow earthquakes, at least in eastern Taiwan. Slow earthquakes are non-violent fault slippage events that take hours or days instead of a few brutal seconds to minutes to release their potent energy.

May 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Purdue University researchers claim that they have created a new type of invisibility cloak that works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before. Research leaders Vladimir Shalaev and Anne Burnett say that their new design may also pave the way for practical applications in "transformation optics"-such as the creation of "hyperlenses" for microscopes 10 times more powerful than those existing presently; computers and consumer electronics that use light instead of electronic signals to process information; advanced sensors; and more efficient solar collectors.

March 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have created a metamaterial that could lead to the development of a cloaking device that makes a person invisible, among other applications. Developed by Naomi Halas and graduate student Nikolay Mirin from Rice University, US, the material collects light from any direction and emits it in a single direction, using very tiny, cup-shaped particles called nanocups.

January 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Cuttlefish and chameleons could teach Harry Potter a thing or two about becoming invisible, either as predator or as prey. Roger Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), who has been studying animal camouflage for 35 years, discerned three distinct 'invisibility patterns' comprising uniform, mottled and disruptive.