Real Life Invisibility Cloak

I don't know about everyone else, but I have always dreamed of being able to be invisible. Growing up there was many instances of people on television or in books who had some sort of device or a power that could make them invisible. Once I even watched one of the worst movies ever made (it even looked bad when I read the blurb), about an invisible plane. However I thought, "what the hell, it's about an invisible plane, it can't be that bad!" It was! I also recall Rowan Atkinson did a stand-up comedy routine back in the 80's about an Invisible Man (it was a really funny routine) and more recently J.K Rowling wrote about Harry Potter, who he had an invisible cloak. So I know that the idea has not died and has in fact been thought of by many other people than myself (an not all of them have made terrible movies with no real plot or story line).

Today however, I discovered that my long time obsession with being invisible and things being made invisible came a step closer to reality, and that it could be potentially possible in my life time to become invisible! Today I read a story about a Professor from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Professor Baile Zhang, who earlier this month unveiled, to an amazed audience, a small box (it doesn't sound like much at this point, but wait for it). This box is made from calcite optical crystal (whatever that is), and has the ability to bend light around an object and make anything behind the box disappear! This is a remarkable discovery and although it is a long way into the future, this could be a step in the right direction for Professor Zhang, who admitted he invented the box, "just for fun", to then go on to create my invisibility cloak! So watch out people, sometime in my lifetime I might be sitting beside you and you would never know it (if you have never met me, the last statement would also be true, however in that instance you would at least know you were sitting beside someone, unlike if I was invisible).

Check out more about the invisibility cloak on the Daily Telegraph website.

Acalculia

I was once again watching the West Wing and as usual Martin Sheen's character was saying something intelligent, this time he was asking people the definition of Acalculia. Some of the other character's, being equally as smart as the president (or equally well rehearsed as the case may have been) knew the answer. I on the other hand had no idea! It turns out that Acalculia, according to the definition on the West Wing, is the inability to do simple mathematical problems. This reminded me of a friend of mine who after a big night out was supposed to be counting money at work, however instead of adding the notes together, she found herself just saying what each note was and putting it in a pile. Once her co-worker realised what she was doing, she told her it was best if she went home! So this is where my mind went when thinking about how somebody with Acalculia might suffer.

I decided not to rest here, but went to do one of my (hopefully now famous) ten minute Google searches, and discovered that actually Acalculia was much more serious. It turns out that Acalculia is actually more accurately described as, a person who has difficulty with simple mathematical equations due to an acquired brain injury. Basically it is not just that they cannot perform the mathematical functions, but in order to be diagnosed with Acalculia, they previously had to have had the ability to perform those simple mathematical problems. Now again my friend who acquired a hangover and lost the ability to count money, could technically be classed as have Acalculia, however the road for her to recover this function is a short one, with hydration and sleep. Most people with Acalculia would have a much longer road to recovery. As a sidebar, I also discovered that people who, from birth are unable to simply calculate numbers, are referred to as having Dyscalculia, not Acalculia.

If you want to check out some further information, check out Wikipedia and Medical Dictionary.