INVISIBLE MAN comes to IIT campus

Chris Phillips Puts On His Clever Coat And Vanishes

Hemali Chhapia I TNN

Mumbai: When Harry Potter put on the robe handed down by his father and turned invisible, you knew it was only special effects. However, the concept of invisibility seemed closer to reality on Sunday. Several students at Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) witnessed Chris Phillips, a faculty member from Imperial College, London, don a “clever coat’’, following which a part of him went invisible on the projection screen.

Thousands of students had lined up outside the lecture hall for this much-awaited discussion by Phillips. A gaudy, floral green table mat made up the background behind the lectern. A camera mounted on a tripod stood on the side. Finally, after an hour’s delay, Phillips took the stage. Lights were dimmed and students watched closely, wary of being conned into any trick. The professor presented a glimpse into his lab; he spoke of the science and the instruments he was applying in his research.

Phillips, who used quantum mechanics to make things invisible, said he was still in the process of working on a cloak that would render a person invisible. “Things are visible because their electrons interact with light. When light, an electromagnetic wave, hits electrons and gets deflected, you see things. To turn invisible, you have to understand light and how it interacts with matter,’’ said he.

According to him, three things can make one invisible—a cloak, a big laser or a clever coat. Back in London, Phillips used intense beams of infra-red light from lasers with special semiconductor crystals. He showed students assembled there a video of how a part of his palm turned invisible when he put his hand in the “invisibility beam’’. Standing behind the lectern, he shot an example, “If I were to develop an invisibility cloak, light waves should not hit me. They should travel around me, but not interact with me. You need a material that will bend light in such a manner.’’

However, the cloak must also allow the wearer to be able see outside. Interspersing his lecture with jokes, Phillips said when Potter had put on his cloak, it did not allow him to see outside. “That is something Harry Potter did not mention.’’

Phillips’ final point in the presentation threw light on the clever coat. “Let me show you how a clever coat works.’’ Soon, the screen only displayed Phillips’ face. His body had been covered by a “clever coat’’. The room was echoing with applause.

Few students, however, realised that a camera constantly projected the backdrop, and before Phillips ‘performed’, he had managed to get a cut-out of the backdrop and had it projected on himself, thus making him look ‘transparent’ or invisible.
Atlas of human history

The greatest history book ever written is the one hidden in our DNA,’’ said Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project. In the packed auditorium of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Wells spoke of how his exploration had led him to believe that “we’re all effectively cousins’’ because Eve—as she is called—lived in Africa roughly 1,50,000 years ago and “it was more a matter of chance than destiny that only her line survived’’. Adam too, he added, “lived in Africa, but only 60,000 years ago’’.

To date, the Genographic Project team has collected about 50,000 indigenous samples and preliminary analysis indicates a population expansion period starting around 70,000 years ago. “Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world—truly an epic drama, written in our DNA,’’ added Wells. In fact, climate change, which is altering our world today, could be responsible for changing migratory patterns after thousands of years. “After hurricane Katrina, many have not returned to their towns,’’ Wells observed.

In India, Wells is working with researchers from the Madurai Kamraj University. “Our genetic markers never disappear; they are passed on from one generation to another,’’ said Wells, who encouraged Indians to participate in the project to understand “who you are and where you came from’’. TNN

INTO THIN AIR: The faculty member of Imperial College in London used quantum mechanics to make things invisible