May 28, 2012 | Elise

Scientists are using invisibility cloaks to trap rainbows! I know that sounds a little wacky, but in recent years scientists have come up with a number of clever ways to manipulate light and make things invisible. So far these cloaks have only worked with limited types of light or small objects. Researchers have now built an array of 25,000 invisibility cloaks which work together to slow down a broad sprectrum of light and effectively trap a rainbow.

Controlling light has a number of applications, including communications, camouflage, medical sensing and analysing complex systems.