A universal mirror, an object that reflects all light waves back at their source, has been created by scientists in Europe and Asia.

Imagine a tennis player hitting a ball against a wall. The ball would bounce right back to the player no matter what angle he or she directed the shot. A universal mirror has the same effect, except with light waves. Unlike an ordinary mirror, which only reflects objects at 90 degrees, a universal mirror reflects objects back at any angle. In other words, a person positioned in front of a large, optical universal mirror would see his or her own reflection perfectly no matter where the person stands.

Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St. Andrews (UK) and colleagues in Singapore have developed the "omnidirectional retroreflector." Leonhardt has been active in SPIE metamaterials conferences, serving on the program committee of Metamaterials: Fundamentals and Applications at the SPIE Optics + Photonics symposium in 2008 and 2009. He is also a program committee member for the Metamaterials conference at SPIE Europe Photonics Europe 2010, to be held 12-16 April 2010 in Brussels.

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