58
ILLUSTRATIONBYLAWRENCEHUGHBURNS
•
MARCH2015
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
bright ideas
Michigan, has other applica-
tions inmind.His teamof researchers
has been working on supersensitive
graphene contact lenses that, he says,
will allowpeople to see in the darkor
even to look through solidmaterials.
Zhong isn’t the only researcher
looking to one-up biology through
metamaterials.Teams inGermanyand
Israel recently collaborated to create
a shape-shifting nanorobotmade out
of anewkindofplastic that can swim,
Fantastic Voyage
–like, through bodily
fluids todeliver drugs.Google, for its
part, recently announced
it is designing tinymag-
netic particles to patrol
the human body looking
for signs of disease.
Nanotechnology
pioneer Robert Freitas
believescomputer-guided
artificial blood cells—or
respirocytes—will bring
us close to biological
perfection. Indeed, given that they
transport oxygen 200 times more
efficiently thannatural redbloodcells,
respirocytespromiseearth-shattering
performance enhancement. “They
could allow us to hold our breath for
four hours at the bottom of a swim-
ming pool,”Freitas claims, “or sprint
for15minutesbefore takingabreath.”
In recent years, businesses and
government agencies, eager to
come out ahead of the field, have
been pouring billions into research
involving metamaterials and
nanotech-enabled robotics. The
University of Pennsylvania’s new
$92 million nanotech research hub
is among the leaders, having recently
produced “diamond nanothreads” so
strong and light that their developers
claim they may one day allow us to
take elevators into space.And if that’s
not sci-fi enough for you, the lab has
also developed a kind of invisibility
cloak—albeit on a very small scale.
Penn professor Nader Engheta,
a leading figure in metamaterials,
believes that the rapid development
of these substances is set to be accel-
erated even further by “new printing
techniques,whichmean
that largerareasofmeta-
materials can be made
with lower costs.” He
cites anewgenerationof
“superlenses,”whichwill
allowpeople tosee things
invisible to the most
powerful microscopes,
and so set the stage for
thecreationofevenmore
extraordinarymetamaterials.
As for theaforementioned invisibil-
ity trick,Engheta and his team have
foundawayofusingmetamaterials to
bend light,creating the illusion that the
objectbeingcoveredby them isn’t there
atall.Thenext step,Engheta says,will
be tocreate“fluidicmetamaterials,”or
invisibilitypaint.
Such products could revolutionize
pretty much every area of life, from
travel to healthcare to law enforce-
ment to warfare. “Whatever people
are excited about now—robots, 3-D
printing—isnothingcomparedtowhat
ishappening inthefieldofmetamateri-
als,”saysEvanLerner,aspokesman for
Penn. “What a handful of people are
workingonnow isgoing tochange the
planet inwayswe can’t even imagine.”
When asked what he might do
if endowed with invisibility, Eng-
heta provides a response that seems
to havemore in commonwith those
oldcomicbookads thanwithscientific
research.“I’duse it todogooddeeds,”
he says,“without beingnoticed.”
“WHATA
HANDFULOF
PEOPLEARE
WORKINGON
NOW ISGOING
TOCHANGETHE
PLANET INWAYS
WECAN’TEVEN
IMAGINE.”
NotaMorning
Person?You
MightBe
SleepDrunk
thismonth’s amazing fact
S
omepeoplewakeupbright-
eyedandbushy-tailed.
Others reluctantlygreet theday
bleary-eyedandgroggy. Anda
surprisinglyhighpercentageof
thepopulationawakesa third
way: actingas intoxicatedasa
frat boyon springbreak. Ina
recent studypublished in the
journalNeurology, Dr.Maurice
Ohayonof theStanfordUniversity
School ofMedicineuncovereda
new sleepdisorderhe calls sleep
drunkenness, or confusional
arousal. As itsname implies,
thephenomenon ismarkedby
extreme confusion, disorientation,
violenceor evenboutsof amnesia
shortlyafter the sleeper is
awoken, usually in some sudden
manner, suchasbyanalarm
clockor a ringing telephone.
Behaviors can range from the silly
(mistakingyour alarm clock for
your cell phoneandhavinga full
conversation insteadof silencing
it) to the lesshumorous (don’t
sleepnear sharpobjects!). But
what’smost surprisingabout the
disorder is just howprevalent
itmaybe. Ohayonandhis team
surveyed19,136adultsabout
their sleephabitsand found
that 15.2percent—about one
in seven—hadexperienced
symptomsat least once in the
past year. Of those,more than
half reported that it happenedat
least onceaweek. The takeaway?
If you say somethingdumb in
themorning, younowhave
a scientifically soundexcuse:
“Sorry, honey. Iwas sleepdrunk!”
—NICHOLASDERENZO
Berlin-basedwriter
BOYDFARROW
hasn’t
beenableto findhiscarkeys,andhe fears
metamaterialsmaybe responsible.
MARCH CROSSWORDANSWERS
