Hi, I'm new to this forum and I could use some help. I'm a freshman

[Bzern]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I could use some help. I'm a freshman in high school and for a school project, we have to make a magazine. My group and I are doing a tech and general science magazine. I'm writing a feature story on metamaterials, and a future where they are abundant. We need contacts and quotes from people that about the subject, and the people who I emailed last week still haven't responded, so I'm in a bindbecause they're due on Monday. I know its a really broad subject, but I think it could be an interesting article. The questions are below. If possible, could you put your name (it can be fake, we just need it for the magazine), and your relation to the subject (researcher, student, enthusiast, etc.). You don't need to answer all of the questions, or any of them. Thanks so much, this really helps.

1. In what ways can meta-materials change the world around us?
2. When do you think meta-materials will make the transition from labs to day to day life?
3. What industry do you think will benefit most from the development of meta-materials and why?
4. What does the average consumer need to know about meta-materials?
5. I know that meta-materials can be used to make light bend around objects causing them to appear invisible, do you think that invisible objects will ever be available to general consumers, why or why not?
6. At this point, is it very expensive to produce meta-materials? Could you see the cost dropping in the near future?
7. Who is taking more interest in meta-materials, the military (for the prospect of invisible equipment), or the tech industry (lightning fast computers with no heat)?
8. How do meta-materials work?
9. How much labor goes into the production of meta-materials, if it isn’t already, could the process be mechanized?
10. Once meta-materials graduate from labs into the real world, will the average person notice a difference in his life?

Ben

 

[Superposed_Cat]

1. Negative refractive index metamaterials will enable so called "super lenses". Microscope quality can be greatly improved.

2. Soon I think. But it will be a gradual transisition.

3.The semi-conductor industy. nanophotonics could lead to photonic computers and metamaterials with custom inductance, resistance ect. will benefit solid state physics.

4. metamaterials are a great tribute to human engineering. How micro engineering can obviate the obstacles placed before us by mother nature.

5.That has only been accomplished for the microwave region of the EM spectrum. But I think that if invisibilty was made available to the average consumer it was cause too much trouble, imagine how easy murder would be?.

6.If they become mass-produced in the future then the cost will come down.

7.Both I would say. Meta-materials have applications in all fields.

8.Simply put they work by combining different materials to get new properties that would not normally be found in nature.

9. Well you need specialized equipment to make them. everything can be mechanized. Once the demand goes up it will justify the construction of the expensive factories.

10.I think so. faster data transmission for one, and secondly it will open up new research areas so who knows what that will bring?

 

[Bzern]

Thank you so much! That really helps!

 

[DrDu]

I always had the feeling that "meta-materials" is a a term invented by electro-engineers who don't really understand how optics works in the visible part of the spectrum and try to forcefully extend their experience with small electric and magnetic dipole antenna to the optical region.
In that region and on the relevant length scales you can use quantum effects to achieve the necessary non-local response.
It is well possible that materials with the desired optical properties can be fabricated much easier and cheaper using e.g. supramolecular chemistry.
That's not only my point of view but was already propagated e.g. by Feynman in his lectures.

 

[AlephZero]

With acoustic metamaterials, you can do experiments with structures big enough to make with hand tools, working with frequencies you can hear, or observe visually as water waves.

http://www.physics.fudan.edu.cn/tps/people/jzi/research/contents/materials/Physics%20Worl%20DEC05%20thomas%20sonic%20crystals.pdf

Doing some projects is more fun than writing a magazine article, IMO