Abstract

Hide your lettuce and lock up the carrots: Stealth rabbits are on the prowl. Researchers have woven a cloak that makes a bunny almost invisible to infrared cameras, thanks to fibers that mimic the structure of polar bear hairs (Adv. Mater. 2018, DOI: 10.1002/adma.201706807). The hairs of a polar bear have hollow cores, which reflect back IR emissions from the animal’s body. By trapping those emissions, this structure helps prevent heat loss and keeps the bears warm in their Arctic environments. But the hairs have an added advantage: They can conceal the bears from thermal imaging cameras used in many night-vision devices. Textiles that can mimic polar bear hair’s IR-reflecting abilities might be useful in stealth applications, such as concealing soldiers. Previous attempts to make synthetic versions of the hairs have produced fibers that are too weak to be practically useful. A team from Zhejiang University has now used a

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