It's unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning(1) a special cloak(2), but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.

But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible(3) example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the "Fantastic Four."

"She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could be done in practice," Leonhardt said. "That comes closest to what engineers will probably be able to do in the future."

Invisibility is an optical illusion that the object or person is not there. Leonhardt uses the example of water circling around a stone. The water flows in, swirls(4) around the stone and then leaves as if nothing was there.

"If you replace the water with light then you would not see that there was something present because the light is guided around the person or object. You would see the light coming from the scenery behind as if there was nothing in front," he said.

"What the Invisible Woman does is curve(5) space around herself to bend light. What these devices would do is to mimic(6) that curved space," he said.

Although the devices are still theoretical, Leonhardt said scientists are making advances in metamaterials -- artificial materials with unusual properties that could be used to make invisibility devices.

"There are advances being made in metamaterials that mean the first devices will probably be used for bending radar(7) waves or the electromagnetic(8) waves used by mobile phones," he said.

The devices could be used as protection mechanisms so the radiation emitted(9) from mobile phones does not penetrate(10) electronic equipment. It is guided around it.

"It is very likely that the demonstration for radar would come first and very soon. To go into the visual will take some time but it is also not so far off," Leonhardt said.

周一发布的一项研究说隐身也许能在不久的将来实现，但也许不是吞下一片药或者披上一件斗蓬那样简单。

苏格兰圣安德鲁斯大学理论物理学家厄弗·莱奥哈德说最贴近现实的应该是《神奇漫画》中《神奇四侠》里面的超级英雄—隐身女。

莱奥哈德说：“漫画中，她利用能量场引导周围的光线。这与未来工程师们要做的事情很相似。”

所谓的隐形是一种视觉幻象，使人认为物体或者人不在那里。莱奥哈德用水绕过石头的例子来说明：水流遇到石头后会自动分流绕过石头，之后再汇合，犹如什么都没有遇到过一样继续前进。

他说：“如果你把水换成光线，由于光线被引导绕开了人或者物体，你将看不到那儿有什么东西。你所能看见的是来自物体背后的光线，就好像前面什么都没有一样。”

他说：“隐身女通过扭曲身边的空间来弯曲光线。所有这些装置都用于模拟被弯曲了的空间。”

莱奥哈德说尽管这些装置还只存在于理论中，但是科学家们已经在一种被称为“超材料”的物质上取得进展。这种人造物质拥有特殊的属性，可以用于制作隐身装置。

他说：“在超物质方面的进展意味着第一批隐身装置将用于弯曲雷达电波或者手机使用的电磁波。”

这种装置将是一种保护机制，使手机辐射绕开其他电器，而不是穿透它们。

莱奥哈德说：“针对雷达的实验可能会最先进行，并且就在不远的将来。至于何时能应用于视觉，我们还需要等待，但也不会太久了。”