Scifi eye: picturing a future of human invisibility

Novelist Jon Wallace considers the science fiction implications of engineering stories that have caught his eye. This month: picturing a future of human invisibility

Last month The Engineer featured news about that enduring love of science fiction writers, invisibility. Engineers from Iowa State University, it reports, have developed a stretchable polymer material formed of rows of split ring resonators, embedded inside layers of silicone sheets. Together they create surfaces that trap and suppress radar waves. Researchers claim the technology could be a stepping stone towards invisibility cloaking.

This is one of many ‘meta-material’ stories that have appeared in recent years, as researchers race to develop truly effective invisibility cloaks. We future followers lap this stuff up, intoxicated by click-bait headlines: ‘Harry Potter cloaks made real’ and ‘The Invisible Man is coming’: illustrating both the continuing fascination invisibility holds in popular culture, and the way the trope straddles both fantasy and scifi.