Mark Frogley and Chris Phillips of the Imperial College London, discovered a neat quantum trick: a way to make a light ray that make things invisible.
Using two powerful beams made this way, the team performed its vanishing trick: the artificial atoms became transparent to one beam when a second - coupling - laser illuminated them at the same time. "By shining an invisible powerful laser onto these 'artificial atoms', we have learnt how to control the motion of the electrons so they no longer absorb light - when the laser is switched on, the crystals instantly become invisible, only to return to their normal opaque state when the laser is switched off."