Latest news with #TheInvisibleMan
Hindustan Times
13-06-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Master of disguise: Meet the inventor of a state-of-the-art invisibility cloak
In some ways, he is himself the stuff of science-fiction. For thousands of years, dating to ancient Greek and Welsh myths, then sci-fi and the worlds of HG Wells and Harry Potter, storytellers and scientists have toyed with the idea of the invisibility cloak. Wells, who foresaw the aircraft and army tank, atomic bomb and Wikipedia, wrote of a scientist committed to invisibility in The Invisible Man (1897). This scientist learnt how to change the way light reflected off his body. In Canada, George Eleftheriades has done something similar. He can't erase himself from view, but he has so far been able to hide large, bulky objects from radar, using just a thin layer of rather magical antennae. It's a bit like noise-cancelling headphones, he says, with remarkable modesty. (It isn't that simple at all.) But before we get to how it works, a bit about who he is. Eleftheriades, 60, is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto. Growing up in Cyprus, he was obsessed with science as a child. He had chemicals bubbling over in his room, microorganisms squirming under microscopes, and burn marks on the wooden floor, he says, with a laugh. He was fascinated by radiowaves, which felt a bit like magic. As he grew, he had his imagination sparked by the way ancient Greek philosophers, particularly Heraclitus, viewed scientific concepts. (Heraclitus, of course, famously expressed the idea of constant flux by noting that one can't step into the same river twice.) Following where his heart led, Eleftheriades studied electrical engineering in Athens, after which he moved to the US for a Master's and PhD from University of Michigan. He worked on ultra-sensitive radiowave receivers in Switzerland from 1994 to '97, and has been at University of Toronto ever since. A decade ago, he became something of a 'stealth' agent. In 2015, the Canadian military reached out to ask if he could take the work done so far on stealth technology, and build on it. He has now won the prestigious IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Electromagnetics Award for his work on metamaterials and metasurfaces, and the creation of an 'invisibility cloak'. *** How does the cloak work? Well, we 'see' an object, as Eleftheriades points out, when light hits it and scatters. Based on how the rays are scattered and reflected, we perceive shapes, colours, depth and distance. His cloaking device emits waves of its own that cancel out the scattering as it occurs. (In this way, it is a bit like noise-cancelling headphones, which emit soundwaves to counter soundwaves.) His device does this through the use of metamaterials, which are manmade materials designed to behave in ways that normal materials cannot. Fundamentally, they are built to control the flow of waves — radio, sound, light — in unprecedented ways. The world's first metamaterial was created in the US in 2001, and research has sped up since. Key applications include lenses that can see more clearly, more refined diagnostic scans, vastly improved antennas and sensors… and 'invisibility cloaks'. In the case of this last one, early efforts required bulky 3D structures, and though they did deceive radar they did not do it as effectively. Eleftheriades's 'cloak' is a relatively elegant network of antennae, something like a circuit board, that sits on the surface of an object to be rendered invisible. As it interferes with incoming light waves, it forces them to bend or scatter differently, creating the impression that the object simply isn't there. 'We tried this first with a flat object and then with a cylinder,' he says. 'Both 'disappear' in that they cannot be seen by any radar system.' *** There's a lot the 'cloak' can do beyond hiding stealth weapons. Metamaterials have already been used to make lenses that, for the first time in history, are flat and homogenous. Eleftheriades and his team have used such lenses to make super-microscopes that are 10 times as powerful as existing equivalents. He and his team also recently developed a metasurface that could be placed along walls, to reflect radiowaves from cellphones and wi-fi routers in ways that magnify their strength and quality. What about making something actually vanish from sight? The closest he has come to doing this is when he put the 'cloak' on a car and had it zoom past speed sensors. It left no impression on the doppler-wave detectors at all. To the observer, of course, the car was moving past in plain view. Any chance that may change? 'The stuff you see in Star Trek, where something disappears behind a shield and is just gone… we're not there yet,' he says. 'That is worlds more complicated.' Seeing is still believing, then… at least offline, and at least for now.
The Herald Scotland
06-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Davy Russell: The 'invisible man' to Scottish Labour MSP
Many thought it would not be enough, but Thursday night's emphatic result proved them wrong. He lives in Quarter, South Lanarkshire – a village three miles from Hamilton – where he has spent his whole life. In this contest, he was one of the only candidates to stay in the constituency he was fighting to represent. The invisible man? The nickname followed Mr Russell through the campaign trail, after he confirmed he would not participate in STV's live debate. Reform UK candidate Ross Lambie used social media to joke Mr Russell had become the 'invisible man' with the TikTok video showing a search for the Scottish Labour candidate with Queen's The Invisible Man playing alongside the caption, 'Where's Davy?' Read more: Starmer: Scots voted for change in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election win Labour wins Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election Disdain for Davy Russell comes back to bite political elites Mr Russell hit back, adding the best way to reach the public was 'by chapping doors and hearing their concerns'. Senior Labour sources said they knocked on around 7,000 doors on polling day, adding to the community-focus message. Who is Davy Russell? He went to school Hamilton Grammar School and went on to earn a civil engineering certificate from Motherwell Technical College. Mr Russell worked as an apprentice, fixing roads before becoming a senior manager at Glasgow City Council, handing roads, transport and waste services. As deputy lord lieutenant, he represents the King at local events. Mr Russell previously worked as a consultant to a subsidiary of Mears Group, a company previously embroiled in a data falsification scandal. His whole campaign was used to centred on reinvigorating Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, condemning the Scottish Government's plans to downgrade the neonatal unit at University Hospital Wishaw and pledging to boost high streets. Mr Russell was jubilant as he was named the newest MSP in Holyrood in the early hours of Friday morning. He said it was the best moment since the birth of his grandson, Adam, who was born six weeks ago. 'I've lived here my whole life. I'm a dad and a grandad and like many of you, I care deeply about the future of our community,' he said. Hamilton town centre will be his priority in Holyrood, he said. 'We need to get investment in there,' he said. 'The council are trying really hard in this, but it needs a bit of help.' This was his first bid at Holyrood and previously served on the board of trustees for Sense Scotland, a charity for disabled people.
Engadget
04-06-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Phasmophobia is getting the Hollywood treatment
Paranormal horror game Phasmophobia is being adapted into a movie by Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster, in partnership with the games developer Kinetic Games. Blumhouse is a major player in the horror genre, having produced the Purge and Paranormal Activity franchises as well as Get Out , The Invisible Man and many more. Atomic Monster produced all the films in The Conjuring universe since 2016's The Conjuring Two . First released on PCs in 2020, Phasmophobia quickly became a pandemic-era hit , with YouTubers and streamers racking up millions of views playing the multiplayer survival game. The game follows one to four players as they work to complete a contract requiring them to identify the type of ghost haunting a specific site. The horror genre has risen in popularity over recent years in both video games and the film business . In 2023 Blumhouse adapted the video game horror series Five Nights at Freddy's into a film, which went on to be the highest grossing film in its history. Blumhouse has also begun making video games in-house, and released its first game, Fear the Spotlight , last year. Blumhouse Productions announced the Phasmophobia adaptation at its first-ever 'Business of Fear' event in Hollywood, where founder and CEO Jason Blum and Atomic Monster founder and CEO James Wan spoke about the business of horror movies. No distributor or release date has been announced yet.
Wales Online
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Man from UNCLE and NCIS star left £100,000 in his will
Man from UNCLE and NCIS star left £100,000 in his will The documents have shown who inherited the star's fortune David McCallum (Jam Press) The Man from U.N.C.L.E star David McCallum left nearly £100,000 when he died - all to his wife - his will has shown. The British actor became a star by playing a secret agent in the 1960s spy drama. He also appeared alongside Steve McQueen in war movie The Great Escape. McCallum died aged 90 on 25 September, 2023. More recently the Scottish-born star who lived in New York became known to a younger audience for his long-running role as a medical examiner in TV show NCIS. Now documents show his estate in England and Wales was worth £97,307 when he died. The value of his British estate was left to his wife Katherine who was also its administrator. His will was made in 2010 was ratified by the Nassau County Surrogate's court, New York. He had five children, from two different relationships. Three from his first marriage to Jill Ireland - Valentine, Paul and adopted son Jason. Jason passed away from a drug overdose after taking a combination of painkillers and other muscle relaxants in 1989. He also had two children when he married second wife Katherine Carpenter - son Peter and daughter Sophie. His will shows that he stipulated if his wife Katherine died before him his estate was to be left to Peter and Sophie. Article continues below If Katherine predeceased him the will also made provision for Paul and Valentine - his sons with Jill Ireland - who would each get $100,000. The actor had a long career starring in TV series Colditz, The Invisible Man and Sapphire & Steel. But he was probably best known for his role as mysterious Soviet agent Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He received several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations before the series ended in 1968.
STV News
29-05-2025
- Politics
- STV News
Labour candidate denies 'running scared' ahead of crucial by-election
The Scottish Labour candidate for the Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse by-election has said he is 'not running scared' amid accusations that he is avoiding the media. Davy Russell had been accused of being the 'invisible man' by his opponents after he refused to take part in an STV debate ahead of the vote on June 5. On TikTok, Reform candidate Ross Lambie accused Russell of 'hiding from scrutiny and TV debates'. The social media video showed him on the hunt for the Scottish Labour candidate in the constituency as Queen's 'The Invisible Man' played alongside the caption 'Where's Davy?'. It was also insinuated that the Labour party may have had concerns about Russell's ability to speak live on TV after his contributions to a social media video posted by Scottish secretary Ian Murray had to be heavily edited last week. However, Russell was keen to clear the air on Wednesday afternoon. He told STV News that he was 'certainly not' the invisible man of the by-election campaign, and denied that he was 'running scared'. 'I can take you to any area in this constituency and I am better known than any of the other candidates,' he said. 'I made a conscious decision that I'd go back to grassroots and fight on the doorstep, listen to people's concerns and the real issues that affect them. It's OK doing a debate that goes to the whole of Scotland, but really, you're not listening to people.' Russell said he's been knocking on doors and talking to constituents – a strategy he says has been appreciated by locals. He said: 'There was one door I went to the other day and the man says 'The last person to chap my door was George Robertson'. How long ago was he MP for this area?' Russell also said his opponents are 'not actually chapping doors to any significant amount'. He claimed they've done 'plenty of leaflet posting', but accused them of 'not actually speaking to people'. '[Talking to people] is more appreciated than a TV debate. Come with me and you'll see what I'm talking about,' Russell added. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
