Can you believe this? There is pretty much NOTHING that a little science can’t do!

The first black hole for light has been created on Earth!  The device, which currently works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity.  Cool news right?

Now Tie Jun Cui and Qiang Cheng at the Southeast University in Nanjing, China, have turned Narimanov and Kildishev’s theory into practice, and built a “black hole” for microwave frequencies. It is made of 60 annular strips of so-called “meta-materials”, which have previously been used to make invisibility cloaks.

Cui is confident that they can do it. “I expect that our demonstration of the optical black hole will be available by the end of 2009,” he says.

Such a device could be used to harvest solar energy in places where the light is too diffuse for mirrors to concentrate it onto a solar cell. An optical black hole would suck it all in and direct it at a solar cell sitting at the core. “If that works, you will no longer require these huge parabolic mirrors to collect light,” says Narimanov.

More at NewScientist!

I wonder when they’re gonna finally discover the secret to getting a money tree.  Ahh, maybe that space in history can be reserved for me!

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