Researchers have developed a new 'illusion coating' that could hide things by making them look like something else or even completely disappear. "Previous attempts at cloaking using a single meta-surface layer were restricted to very small-sized objects," said Zhi Hao Jiang, postdoctoral fellow in electrical engineering, Pennsylvania State University. Jiang and Douglas H Werner developed a meta-material coating with a negligible thickness that allows coated objects to function normally while appearing as something other than what they really are, or even completely disappearing. The researchers employ what they call "illusion coatings," coatings made up of a thin flexible substrate with...