Strange as Fiction Inventions

Friday, 05 November 2010 | by Pat's Picks

It feels like every day, I read about some fantastical thing I saw in a movie that’s now close to becoming a reality. A couple months ago we had the self-tying shoe inspired by Marty McFly. Yesterday we told you about the advent of video hologram conferencing, a la Princess Leia in “Star Wars.” And today it’s Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak that gets one step closer to reality.

Scientists in Scotland say by using something called metamaterials, they are getting closer to making a garment that renders its wearer invisible. The material works by changing the way light moves “at a fundamental level” says the BBC. The cloak is still a ways off—scientists have to figure out a way to make the material more flexible. I hope they hurry up so work can begin on a flying broomstick, the clear answer to Manhattan’s congestion problem.

Read an abstract of the study in the New Journal of Physics

Speaking of invisible, check out this invisible computer mouse invented by an MIT student: