Prof John Pendry talks about how bending light led to the invention of Harry Potter-style invisible cloaks and what the future holds for this science

by Simon Levey and Ling Ge
Wednesday 8 August 2012

Scientists are working on new technologies that bend and squash light into incredibly small areas just a billionth of a meter across.

Based on a theory only conceived in the last few years they have been able to devise a light-bending invisibility cloak. They now hope to use it to improve a range of modern appliances like airport security scanners, state-of-the-art microscopes, non-invasive medical scanners and cancer killing devices.

In a review article published in Science, researchers from Imperial College London, Institut Langevin in France, and Duke University in the USA give details of the light-squashing method, called 'transformation optics', and explain why a significant breakthrough in this area would allow researchers to do almost anything with light, limited only by their imagination.

In the following audio clip, Dr Ling Ge interviews Professor Sir John Pendry FRS, author of the paper and originator of transformation optics explains what his research is about, how it works and why harvesting the power of light is such a promising technique.

Reserve your place now to see Professor Pendry give a free talk about the science of metamaterials on 6 November 2012 at Imperial College London.

About the interviewer

Dr Ling Ge is a Research Associate in Imperial's Department of Chemistry and a Media Fellow of the British Science Association. Each year, ten Media Fellows take a short sabbatical from their research careers to work as a national media outlet, such as a newspaper, broadcast or internet media organisation. During August 2012, she worked in Imperial's Research Communications Group and will be spending around five weeks at the science desk of the Financial Times later in the Summer.