Could Invisibility Cloak be real?

AP

Jie Yao (right), co-author of a science paper about new materials that can bend light backward, gives a brief demonstration as co-authors Guy Bartal (left) and Jason Valentine look on.

This story might begin slowly, slowly to disappear. Don't be alarmed. It's not Harry Potter; it's science.

Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, have engineered 3-D materials that can curve light around objects, a breakthrough that could lead one day to devices that make something — or someone — invisible to the human eye.

Wow, the Invisibility Cloak! The secret weapon of the boy magician of books and movies who awes kids. It just might be real after all. Just think of what could be done.

"I could sneak up on my little brother, and hide my stuff under it so he couldn't get at it," said Eleanor Lee, 7, of Mount Pleasant, a Pottermaniac who reads the books over and over and pores over Amazon looking for the costumes.

Jie Yao, a graduate student who co-authored the study of the materials, can't help but smile at the notion. The researchers were thinking of uses more like optical imaging to help biologists root out diseases in tiny cells. But sure, he's read the books. This could be magic for Muggles the world over.

"If I were 10 years younger, I would be amazed," the 30-year-old said.

Charlotte Blasier, a children's librarian at Charleston County Public Library, loves the book description of the cloak as silky smooth and so light it feels like nothing. It makes you feel like invisibility is real, she said, and that's what kids love about the stories.

But when she heard about the 3-D materials, she thought it as odd as Quidditch.

"I think anybody's first reaction is scepticism," she said.

Not so strangely, Yao agrees. The materials so far only work on objects smaller than the wave point of light. It takes a scanning electron microscope to watch them disappear.

"We still have a long, long way to go if it can be achieved," he said.

Not to worry. Kids old enough to read the Harry Potter books know that it's all pretend.

"But I think she loves to pretend it's real," said Kim Lee, Eleanor's mother. Uh oh, Mom, she's got a birthday coming up.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.