As Christmas is upon us, allow me to share some childish wonder and dreaming.
We learned about the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter. As with many cool ideas, the myth of invisibility started in ancient Greece. The gods Hades (underworld), Athena (wisdom, battle, handicraft), Hermes (messenger), and Perseus (slayer of Medusa) were all purported to have carried a helmet that made them invisible.
The H. G. Wells’ novel “The Invisible Man” was originally published in 1897. The novel describes a scientist who devoted himself to research in optics. In the process, he finds a way to alter the refractive index of our human body so that it neither absorbs nor reflects light. As a good, decent, responsible scientist, he tries it on himself but fails to find a way to reverse it. Despite the excitement and thrill, you might think invisibility would bring, his life goes rapidly downhill. Be careful what you wish for!
Metamaterials are materials enabling the “illusion of invisibility.” NIL Technologies (Nano Imprint Lithography Technologies) is a company that is engineering the reality of metamaterials. The company was founded in 2006 by Theodor Nielsen and Brian Bilenberg in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Since 2002, I have been a VC. I have listened to many memorable pitches, some hugely entertaining, some outright terrible…
