A US-British team of scientists has successfully tested a cloak of invisibility in the laboratory.

The device mostly hid a small copper cylinder from microwaves in tests at Duke University, North Carolina.

It works by deflecting the microwaves around the object and restoring them on the other side, as if they had passed through empty space.

But making an object vanish before a person's eyes is still the stuff of science fiction - for now.

The researchers say that if an object can be hidden from microwaves, it can be hidden from radar - a possibility that will ensure interest from the military.

"We've opened the door into the secret garden," co-author Professor John Pendry, from Imperial College London, told BBC News.

Professor Pendry said a metamaterial cloak could be manufactured to wrap around an fighter plane or tank. But, he said: "You mustn't demand that the cloak be too thin. Despite the hype around Harry Potter, this isn't anything that flaps around in the breeze, it's more like a shed."

Is this actually new?