While some work toward an invisibility cloak, University of Illinois professor Nicholas Fang is taking steps to create a similar material, only for sound, that could, for example, make ships invisible to SONAR. To successfully do this, of course, requires we break the laws of physics. But, you know, whatever.
How could two submarines end up colliding in the middle of the ocean? British military types are blaming excessive stealthiness, and the French claim they didn’t realise what had happened for days.
On the list of ways to go, having your lungs explode is definitely on the gnarlier side. Too bad for bats in treehugging locales, though, because that’s what’s happening to them, due to a pretty serious error with their awesome echolcation systems crossing with the seemingly benign forces of Bernoulli’s principle put into motion by the turbines’ huge spinning blades. Ouch all around.
newVideoPlayer("/torpedorrrrrr_gizmodo.flv", 510, 281,""); This is a US Navy Spruance-class destroyer sinking in mere minutes after being hit by the latest version of a Mk 48: a heavyweight torpedo which, as you can see in this video, can wipe a whole ship out of the water in a single strike. This version, developed by the US and Australia, has new sonar enhancements that make it an “effective weapon in shallow water and in a countermeasure environment.” The footage was taken during the Rim of the Pacific 2008 naval exercise to demonstrate its capabilities. Obviously, with frightening success (at least for someone who is looking to go to NYC in a freighter ship soon.) [Ares and BBC]
