A SAMPLE SPEAKING OUTLINE

1. Susan Storm anecdote: bent light waves, became invisible, sci-fi for now.
2. Advances in sci. of invis.
3. Affect many aspects of lives

1. Research and interviews
2. Phys. sci., review experiments, future impact •

1. Must trans. light around object
   1. Fiction-magic •
      1. Hades’ invis. helmet
      2. HG Wells’s magic elixir
      3. Harry Potter’s invis. Cloak
   2. Researchers focus sci. principles
      1. Visibility depends on light. Interview with Prof. Rutan, Feb. 10, 2007: Must transport light around object. To be visible, light must travel toward blackboard. Block that light, board invisible. •
      2. Effect like mirage. Duke physicists David Smith and Dave Schurig, Discover, 2006, “when light rays from the sky hit the hot, thin air just above the surface of the asphalt, they bend. . . . Rays once headed from the sky to the ground are redirected to your eye, making the road shimmer like water. In effect, the mirage is cloaking the (now invisible) road behind an image of the blue sky.”

1. Invis. research progressing well
   1. Began w/ microwaves
      1. Josie Glausiusz, sr. ed., Discover, Nov. 2006, Duke physicists used microwaves because “substantially longer wavelength, which makes the cloaking effect considerably easier to achieve.” •

         • All word-for-word quotations go in quotation marks

      2. Same source: used spec. created metamaterials, “possess an ability, not found in nature, to bend light at extreme angles.” Placed rings of metamat. around cylinder to “bend microwaves to flow around the cylinder like water flowing around a pebble in a stream.”

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   • Reminders to display presentation aid

   1. More recent trials cloak from visible light
      1. Experiment by Prof. Zhang, Cal, Nano Letters, May 27, 2011, used “carpet cloak device made of silicon nitride.” Concluded “makes actual invisibility for the light seen by the human eye possible.”

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      2. UK sci. diff. approach. Gary Boas, contrib. ed., Photonics Spectra, August 2012, “a space-time ‘event’ cloak . . . adds the dimension of time. While spatial cloaks divert light around an object, thus rendering the object invisible, the space-time cloak would slow down and speed up the illuminating photons to create a dark interval where events can take place undetected.”
   2. How long until cloak can shield large objects? Ulf Leonhardt, visiting prof., Natl. U. of Singapore, National Geographic News, Nov. 20, 2008, “it’s a question of the will and the money put into this field.”

1. Many practical apps. •

   • Abbreviate terms you know well

   1. Improve visual environ. Ian Sample, sci. corresp., Guardian, March 18, 2010, “some scientists believe cloaking materials could be used to hide unsightly buildings or high-security facilities.”
   2. Med benefits. George Soukoulis, sr. physicist, Ames Lab, Science Daily, Jan. 9, 2007, metamat. may lead to “superlens,” capture “details much smaller than one wavelength of light to vastly improve imaging for materials or biomedical applications, such as giving researchers the power to see inside a human cell or diagnose disease in a baby still in the womb.”
   3. C. Satellite connections. Jim Kerstetter, sr. ed, CNET News, Aug. 21, 2012, Intellectual Ventures (investors incl. Gates) patented metamat. tech. that elim. heavy and expensive equipment on planes. Tech. is laptop sized, could create “personal satellite hot spot.”
   4. D. Protect us from other waves. Adam Piore, contrib. ed., Discover, July–Aug. 2012, Cloak sound, seismic, and ocean waves.

1. Sci. of invis., current research, future impacts
2. Soon see benefits to defense, medicine, communications. Susan Storm as Invis. Woman no longer fiction.