Every now and then I get a big slap over the head, reminding me I live in the 21st Century.

Today's slap came by way of the ABC Radio current affairs program, AM, where they interviewed the guys from UC Berkeley who have created a material that makes light bend in a way that isn't found in nature. It's similar to how light bends when it enters water and essentially makes you, well, invisible.

Here's my favourite bit of the interview:

DAVID MARK (the interviewer): ... if you were to wear this material, what affect might it have on someone who was looking at you?

JASON VALENTINE (the Berkeley geek): ...the person would essentially be invisible in that the light would bend around the person so you wouldn't see them at all.

The other part of the interview that made me laugh was the following statement:

We weren't really concentrating on any of the applications, we'll see where we it goes from here and what we pursue with it. But yeah it's a very fun area to be in for a scientist to be able to create a material that has properties that don't exist in nature is pretty cool from a scientist's standpoint.

So here's my question... what did they put on the funding application for the presumably whopping great grant they got to spend years researching an invisible material? 

"Hey dudes, we don't know what we're going to do with this stuff, but it's gonna be so cool to make it"

And when it's done, if it's invisible,  well, how are you going to show it off?

Just asking. :)

Click here for the full transcript or you can listen to the story in REAL AUDIO and WINDOWS MEDIA and MP3 formats.

Bring on the flying cars, I say... :)