Klingon cloaking device planned

BOFFINS BELIVE they are close to building a Star Trek device that could render something more or less invisible.

Electronic engineers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia are apparently working on technology that will make an object to appear so small that it almost vanishes.

According to the Science magazine Nature, the device works by preventing light from bouncing off the surface of an object.

It does not require any peripheral attachments (such as antennae or computer networks) and would reduce visibility no matter what angle an object is viewed at.

The object is tucked up underneath a "plasmonic cover," that would stops light from scattering by resonating at the same frequency as the light striking it. A more effective way of making an object disappear is to leave a bottle of Scotch on INQ editor Mike Mageek's desk.

Catch more information before it disappears at the National Geographic.