Scientists finally find a practical use for metamaterials: boosting antenna performance (video)

[img]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/11/fractal-ant-2010-11-23-250.jpg
[/img]Metamaterials can do all sorts of cool things in theory, like
create invisibility cloaks or focus lasers. In practice, though,
they're rather less useful. Or at least they were, before the team at
Fractal Antenna figured out that a simple sleeve made out of fractal-
based metamaterials triples the bandwidth of a simple monopole antenna
and boosts its gain by 3dB. All you need to do is slip the fractal
sleeve on and and, hey presto, instant super antenna. You can see it
demonstrated in the video after the break before reading all the
nitty, gritty, infinitely-repeating details in the PR, which is down
there too.