Harry Potter and the Scientific Community

The following is an excerpt from an article in The Boston Globe:

SCIENTISTS SHED NEW LIGHT ON INVISIBILITY

Call it “Harry Potter and the Professors of Invisibility.”

Fans of J.K. Rowling will recall that everyone’s favorite boy magician can vanish at will. Potter just ducks under his magic cloak and swoosh…he is gone.

Last week a prestigious journal published two reports from scientists who have discovered how to achieve the same effect without breaking the laws of physics. Invisibility, they argue, is a matter of diverting light around an object so all the light continues on its way instead of reflecting off the object. The reports suggest using a thick shell of high-tech transparent material to do this. Even when looking directly at the object, an observer would see only what was behind it….

“It is a fascinating concept,” said Steven G. Johnson, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an e-mail. “But I suspect that you’re unlikely to find it for sale anytime soon (except on Diagon Alley).”

Excerpt from Boston Globe 5/29/06 article by Gareth Cook

Remember the disillusionment charm that Madeye Moody put on Harry when the group from The Order of The Phoenix came to rescue him from the Dursleys in Book 6?