Invisibility has fascinated children (and adults) throughout the ages. Who wouldn't love to walk into a room and not be seen? Fly on the wall? Please! How about the ability to stand right next to somebody as they talk behind your back and whooooops.....suddenly they are on their back!
Okay, so there are far nobler uses for invisibility: Cloaking (Star Trek style), sneaking around Hogwarts under cover to help win the fight against Voldemort, dismantling enemy nuclear warheads, figuring out what your kids really do at the mall...or in school...or, well, you get the picture.
It turns out that science is actually making strides toward such abilities through something called metamaterials--an artificial form of matter. Scientists have been designing and building these metamaterials and have learned that they can do things with light that other materials cannot. For example, the goal of successful invisibility is all about hiding objects and people from light. It seems the limits of metamaterials are only limited by our imaginations. For example, one application being worked towards is a hyperlens that can allow us to see things on the smallest scale imaginable. Science News for Kids has a fascinating article on invisibility and metamaterials.
In the meantime, there is a great middle-grade novel I have enjoyed and so has my daughter. Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements (Penguin Group USA, 2002) is about a boy who wakes up invisible...only the reason turns out to be more scientific than supernatural.
