Making things invisible is a pretty neat trick. In 2006, a team of Duke University scientists bent rays of light around a copper ring (which was still visible, thanks to pesky visible light). Now researchers say they are getting close to bending visible light, too, but along the way they've uncovered a rather odd real-world application for the technology: protecting against the power of the sea.
The model you see above is a prototype 10 centimeters across, representative of how the technology would work. Developed at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France, the pillars placed along the protective ring form a static maze of sorts that water won't fully penetrate. As water enters the concentric circles of pillars, it'll interact in such a way that the force drives the liquid around in a whirlpool-like motion, moving around the interior of the ring faster and faster — rather than through it. Water will be trapped inside and thrown out — mostly to the south — and will pass by whatever is in the center as if it wasn't there.
Depending on the size of the barrier ring employed, a system such as this could protect anything from nature's wrath, such as offshore oil rigs. Larger areas needing protection, such as islands and coastlines, would take a far larger network — maybe even several artificial barrier islands employing the technology.
Via NewScientist
CORRECTION: The water barrier rings do not actually spin, as previously published. Thanks, RampantGnome.
editor@dvice.com
By RampantGnome at 6:40 PM ON 09/30/08
I think this has very real potential, assuming I understand how it works correctly, to protect Oil rigs. I'm not sure that protecting an island is going to be feasible in the near future. To build something around an island that is capable of rotating at even a modest velocity seems like an enormous undertaking. It might be more efficient to just evacuate people.
By RampantGnome at 6:51 PM ON 09/30/08
Sorry for the double post, but after reading the source article I realized my post, and the DVICE article, weren't quite accurate. The original article says the the rings of pillars don't rotate, rather the the water flows around the center. Since the device doesn't actually have to move, it becomes a lot more feasible as a large scale protection system.
Also, the reference in the DVICE article to water being thrown out "to the south" is out of context, and therefore doesn't make much sense. In actuality, the water leaves primarily from the side opposite where it entered, independent of cardinal direction.
By Kevin Hall at 7:24 PM ON 09/30/08
@RampantGnome
Thanks for the catch - and the well-mannered correction. I've updated the article to correct my misreading.
Thanks for reading!
By CCfan at 8:58 PM ON 09/30/08
At Rampantgnome, why would you want to protect an island from water anyway? That just doesn't make sense. This is more like a Oil rig, like you said application, and possibly pier, dock, harbor, Vienna repair application.
By MattD at 9:26 PM ON 09/30/08
I'm not sure if I am getting this correctly, but doesn't it sound like if the water moves faster and faster the nearer the centre it gets, that there could be energy generation potential in this thing? I don't know just the first thing I thought of.
p.s. CCFAN do you perhaps mean Venice rather than Vienna?
By Anonymous at 7:08 AM ON 10/01/08
Although the water gets faster the energy within it remains the same, and besides who would want to create energy from tsunamis, you would only get electricity once every few hundred years.
By Razrdedg at 9:50 AM ON 10/01/08
Actually, I don't believe that is correct. The kinetic energy should increase. So if you have a way of extracting the kinetic energy of the water flowing at ever increasing speeds then you should be able to use it as a power generation device as well as protection. Imagine maintaining power to your house during a tsunami or a flood. The other thing is if it was created around an oil rig then the water could constantly be moving at that increased speed (if they made it to work all of the time). And the power generation from that alone could be superiour to the oil they produce, depending on how fast the water moves. Which is unfortunately not stated in this article
By mMerlin at 1:33 PM ON 10/01/08
If you extract kinetic energy from the water, you slow it down. It probably will not go where you want anymore (around the 'protected' center).
How 'fast' the water moves be somewhat scale dependent. Given the implications in the article, I would expect it to move just fast enough to arrive at the exit at about the same time it would have if it had taken the shorter route through the center.
I wonder if a variation of this would work for air, and what the scale would need to be to protect from hurricane winds.
By nomanisan at 7:55 PM ON 10/01/08
Doesn't this sound a lot like the concentric island rings of Plato's Atlantis? An old idea coming around again?
By TNichols at 9:10 PM ON 10/01/08
Yes if you extract the kinetic energy the water will slow down and therefore not go where you want it just like you said MMerlin. However, what if there were nothing in the middle to protect? What if the middle were a hole to release the water back through rather than something to protect? You could feed this device water all the time and pull the kinetic energy out only have the water then go exactly where you want it, back into the ocean. This has AMAZING potential if someone can sit down and actually figure it out.
By kestrel at 1:24 PM ON 10/13/08
What about the poor critters in the water? and the heat from increased friction? they'd get mashed and cooked.