Invisibility - BookWyrm

Hardcover, 296 pages

English language

Published April 10, 2023 by Yale University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-300-25042-8

(2 reviews)

A lively exploration of how invisibility has gone from science fiction to fact Is it possible for something or someone to be made invisible? This question, which has intrigued authors of science fiction for over a century, has become a headline-grabbing topic of scientific research. In this book, science writer and optical physicist Gregory J. Gbur traces the science of invisibility from its sci-fi origins in the nineteenth-century writings of authors such as H. G. Wells and Fitz James O’Brien to modern stealth technology, invisibility cloaks, and metamaterials. He explores the history of invisibility and its science and technology connections, including the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, the development of the atomic model, and quantum theory. He shows how invisibility has moved from fiction to reality, and he questions the hidden paths that lie ahead for researchers. This is not only the story of invisibility but also the story of …

A lively exploration of how invisibility has gone from science fiction to fact Is it possible for something or someone to be made invisible? This question, which has intrigued authors of science fiction for over a century, has become a headline-grabbing topic of scientific research. In this book, science writer and optical physicist Gregory J. Gbur traces the science of invisibility from its sci-fi origins in the nineteenth-century writings of authors such as H. G. Wells and Fitz James O’Brien to modern stealth technology, invisibility cloaks, and metamaterials. He explores the history of invisibility and its science and technology connections, including the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, the development of the atomic model, and quantum theory. He shows how invisibility has moved from fiction to reality, and he questions the hidden paths that lie ahead for researchers. This is not only the story of invisibility but also the story of humankind’s understanding of the nature of light itself, and of the many fascinating figures whose discoveries advanced this knowledge.

1 edition

Soh Kam Yung reviewed Invisibility by Gregory J. Gbur

A fantastic and readable book on the history of light and invisibility

5 stars

A fantastic and readable book on the history of invisibility. But before getting there, the author covers the history of the nature of light from the past through to the present. The excepts of fictional stories featuring invisibility found at the start of each chapter are also very interesting.

Once the nature of light is given, the author then shows how current research is looking into ways to take advantage of how light behaves to make things invisible, either by making light 'avoid' the object of interest, or by destructively interfering with the light emitted by the objects, so it cannot be detected.

The book closes with a look at how the technology and science used to make objects invisible to light can also be used to make objects invisible to other forms of energy, like sound, water waves and even earthquakes.

One property of charged particles mentioned in the …

A fantastic and readable book on the history of invisibility. But before getting there, the author covers the history of the nature of light from the past through to the present. The excepts of fictional stories featuring invisibility found at the start of each chapter are also very interesting.

Once the nature of light is given, the author then shows how current research is looking into ways to take advantage of how light behaves to make things invisible, either by making light 'avoid' the object of interest, or by destructively interfering with the light emitted by the objects, so it cannot be detected.

The book closes with a look at how the technology and science used to make objects invisible to light can also be used to make objects invisible to other forms of energy, like sound, water waves and even earthquakes.

One property of charged particles mentioned in the book was especially interesting and new to me. Most people are probably told that accelerated charged particles emit electromagnetic radiation (light), which was one of the reasons models of atoms with orbiting electrons were hard to get correct before the advent of quantum physics. But the author points out that it is possible to accelerate charged particles on a small sphere without the emission of light, making such spheres invisible.

'Trivia' like this, as well as a good presentation of historial and current day research in to the properties of light, make the book an excellent read.

Phil

rated it

Jul 10