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Alright, kids: the future is just about here.

A British scientist was recently awarded £100,000 by the Royal Society to develop an invisibility cloak. Yes, really.

It seems the good (mad?) scientist, Professor Ulf Leonhardt, believes he can develop “a material that bends light around itself, making it invisible to the naked eye” in just two short years.

Sweet. Sounds simple enough. Have the cloak simply “grab hold” of light rays so they don’t bounce off into our eyes, which enables us to see objects. Instead, curve the light around the object, basing this approach on Einstein’s theory of curved space. Use the Invisible Woman and Harry Potter as your inspiration. Don’t forget to check with the What the Bleep?! people.

But it seems this type of project has already been in the works for a while. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have been working on a garment since at least 2008, with funding from the US Military (hmmm). And way back in 2006, Duke University researchers released this video demonstrating the world’s first working invisibility cloak:

My question is, when will that invisibility cloak get me across the globe without having to board a plane?

What do you think about the possibility of an invisibility cloak existing in the next two years? Share your thoughts below.

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Interested in the possibility of time travel? Then check out the article, Is Time Travel Possible? Or, if you think we should be already be farther ahead in our travel options, 6 Revolutionary Forms Of Travel That Don’t Exist Yet… But Should will comfort you during the wait.