Boeing research scientists, working with physicists at the University of California–San Diego and other universities, have been demonstrating something new about the law of refraction. The team’s discoveries involve the fabrication of a new class of artificial materials called “metamaterials” that bend electromagnetic waves in a manner not seen in nature. Such a capability could someday prove useful in the development of significantly smaller, more-powerful and lower-cost antennas and other electromagnetic devices, and could also lead to the development of improved lenses capable of focusing light and other forms of radiation to limits not achievable by normal lenses.