How do you make an object invisible? Professor Sir John Pendry worked out that it involves guiding and bending light in precise ways by changing the structure of the material it is travelling through. His subsequent work on the interactions between light and matter has led to a new class of materials, known as “metamaterials”, which enable seemingly impossible things to happen. In this episode, he tells us how they work and their applications in everything from 5G technology to simulating the conditions around black holes.
Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor. Guest: Professor Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London.
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