This looks like a job for --

SuperTechnology!

What you're looking at above is a miniature prototype of a proposed "invisibility cloak" to protect offshore platforms and vulnerable coastal structures from damaging tsunamis. It will be tested in a wave tank.

Following a similar wave deflection technique as that used to hide objects from visible light, scientists in France and England have come up with this fascinating concept:

It may look like waves could pass easily along the radial corridors to the cloak's centre. But they interact with the pillars, producing forces that pull water along the concentric corridors instead.

As the water whizzes around the cloak, the waves are flung out again along the radial corridors. The waves exiting the cloak travel as if they have not been disturbed at all.

"I think that this is a great idea with much potential," says Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews, UK. "One could really imagine protecting coastlines by arrays of cleverly designed concrete poles."

But there is just one little problem:

Large structures like islands and coastlines are unlikely to become invisible anytime soon, because building the many small islands needed to protect one is such a big job.

"It's crazy – maybe only people in Dubai could do this," said one researcher, referring to the spectacular artificial islands built there.

This really does seem like a promising solution to the danger of tsnuamis, but we should not expect them to get built in the real world in the near future. It would just be too costly. Until, that is, we can use molecular manufacturing, which should be able to produce these structures on-site, quickly, cleanly, and inexpensively, using readily available raw materials. 

Because of benefits such as these that could save many lives and prevent billions of dollars in property damage, CRN continues to insist that advanced nanotechnology should be developed as quickly as it can be done safely and responsibly.

(Hat tip KurzweilAI)

Mike Treder