X-Men III: The Last Stand may have just flown into theatres today, but for those of us born without the mutant X gene, some scientists may be working on a pseudo-superpower. Hormone driven teenage boys will be ecstatic to hear that professor John Pendry is saying that an “invisible fabric” is only five years away. The way it works is that “light waves would flow around an object hidden inside the metamaterial cloak.”

While such technology will likely be highly guarded, and primarily reserved for military use (imagine driving around in an invisible tank, shooting invisible missles), it certainly is quite interesting to hear about such developments. And this is not all personal conjecture on the part of Pendry either. There is a video of similar technology developed by some people in Japan that may not be completely “invisible”, per se, but you can see “through” the person wearing the metamaterial cloak.

Now if they could only figure out how to give people Wolverine’s superhuman healing powers.