Invisible Humans: Real or Fiction?
By Donald Kaiser – April 15, 2011
At one end of the spectrum, things that are unimportant, mundane, and drab are sometimes characterized as being invisible. Terence Stamp emphasized this context when he stated: "As a boy I believed I could make myself invisible. I'm not sure that I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed." At the other end of the spectrum, things that are spiritual and supernatural are also characterized by their invisibility. It is this context of invisibility that has always mystified and fascinated humankind. To become invisible is to mingle with the spirits or the gods. Antoine de Saint Exupery, the famous French aviator and author of "The Little Prince" touched on this concept when he said, "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
So, is it actually possible to become invisible? As seen above, the feature of invisibility describes diabolically opposed concepts at opposite ends of the spectrum. "Spectrum" is the key word here because visibility requires light, and light exists in a spectrum of colors: purple-blue-green-yellow- orange-red, as revealed by their differential refraction in a rainbow, for example. So, perhaps one way to become invisible would be to selectively refract or filter-out a certain color of light, thereby making things that color, disappear or become invisible. We also know that light can be modeled as electromagnetic waves. Simple properties of waves involve constructive and destructive interference, so if we could selectively destruct or cancel-out just those light waves that make us visible, we'd be invisible. One can imagine all sorts of lenses, wavelengths, refractions, diffractions, reflections, filters, holographs, etc. that could be engineered to make the light reflecting off a person deconstruct or disappear. In effect, to make that person invisible.
Researchers at U Cal-Berkeley and Imperial College-London seem to be doing just that. These scientists are using special materials that bend light around objects (like people) rendering them invisible. The British group is studying microwaves because their properties optimize the bending, but the same principles apply to light in the visible spectrum. Xiang Zhang of the American group says, “In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock.” The assumption is that bending light around objects will make them invisible.
The sculptor Michelangelo once said that his great works of art already existed in the stone, and he was just freeing them from their cryptic place. Similarly, the writer Vladimir Nabokov said, "The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." As in these artistic examples, perhaps our own visibility is merely an indication that we are free from some medium, clutter, noise, or other cryptic accoutrements required to cloak us and make us invisible. While the scientists above are synthesizing new materials that do not exist in nature (so far as we know) to make us invisible, perhaps there really is some natural medium within which we exist, not unlike the "ether" invented by 19th century physicists to provide a medium for light waves to travel through space. This medium might be capable of cloaking us and making us just as invisible as Michelangelo's sculptures before he freed them from their native stone. In such an invisible state, one might say that we were "stoned." In the meantime, "beam me up Scottie!"
By Donald Kaiser – April 15, 2011
At one end of the spectrum, things that are unimportant, mundane, and drab are sometimes characterized as being invisible. Terence Stamp emphasized this context when he stated: "As a boy I believed I could make myself invisible. I'm not sure that I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed." At the other end of the spectrum, things that are spiritual and supernatural are also characterized by their invisibility. It is this context of invisibility that has always mystified and fascinated humankind. To become invisible is to mingle with the spirits or the gods. Antoine de Saint Exupery, the famous French aviator and author of "The Little Prince" touched on this concept when he said, "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
So, is it actually possible to become invisible? As seen above, the feature of invisibility describes diabolically opposed concepts at opposite ends of the spectrum. "Spectrum" is the key word here because visibility requires light, and light exists in a spectrum of colors: purple-blue-green-yellow- orange-red, as revealed by their differential refraction in a rainbow, for example. So, perhaps one way to become invisible would be to selectively refract or filter-out a certain color of light, thereby making things that color, disappear or become invisible. We also know that light can be modeled as electromagnetic waves. Simple properties of waves involve constructive and destructive interference, so if we could selectively destruct or cancel-out just those light waves that make us visible, we'd be invisible. One can imagine all sorts of lenses, wavelengths, refractions, diffractions, reflections, filters, holographs, etc. that could be engineered to make the light reflecting off a person deconstruct or disappear. In effect, to make that person invisible.
Researchers at U Cal-Berkeley and Imperial College-London seem to be doing just that. These scientists are using special materials that bend light around objects (like people) rendering them invisible. The British group is studying microwaves because their properties optimize the bending, but the same principles apply to light in the visible spectrum. Xiang Zhang of the American group says, “In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock.” The assumption is that bending light around objects will make them invisible.
The sculptor Michelangelo once said that his great works of art already existed in the stone, and he was just freeing them from their cryptic place. Similarly, the writer Vladimir Nabokov said, "The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." As in these artistic examples, perhaps our own visibility is merely an indication that we are free from some medium, clutter, noise, or other cryptic accoutrements required to cloak us and make us invisible. While the scientists above are synthesizing new materials that do not exist in nature (so far as we know) to make us invisible, perhaps there really is some natural medium within which we exist, not unlike the "ether" invented by 19th century physicists to provide a medium for light waves to travel through space. This medium might be capable of cloaking us and making us just as invisible as Michelangelo's sculptures before he freed them from their native stone. In such an invisible state, one might say that we were "stoned." In the meantime, "beam me up Scottie!"