Media Coverage of Our Work

Television Interviews and Coverage

The Big Idea

13 July 2015
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab featured on an episode of Channel News Asia's "The Big Idea", titled "Superhuman." The program is hosted by Justin Bratton and can be found here.

The Colbert Report

13 November 2012
Duke cloaking research mentioned on The Colbert Report during the opening monologue.

Ancient Aliens

November, 2011
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab featured on an episode of the History Channel's series "Ancient Aliens," entitled "Heroes, Kings and Aliens. Find out more from the Ancient Aliens site.

Smith Lab Featured on NOVA "Making Stuff"

February, 2011
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab featured on an episode of the PBS NOVA series "Making Stuff," hosted by New York Times technology reporter David Pogue. Find out more or watch the programs on the PBS site.

Physics of The Impossible

22 December 2009
Prof. Smith and lab members featured on the Science Channel series "Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible," on an episode titled "How to become invisible." Physics of the Impossible is hosted by author and technologist Michio Kaku. Find more information at the Science Channel website.

Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention

7 November 2009
The Duke "invisibility cloak" was featured on Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention, a BBC series highlighting inventors and invention, on the episode "Come to Your Senses."

PopSci's "Future Of..."

14 September 2009
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab were highlighted on an episode of the series "Future Of...", which first aired on The Science Channel at 9:00 pm, September 14, 2012. The episode was titled "The Future of Combat." The series was developed by Popular Science and can be found here.

History Channel's "That's Impossible!"

7 July 2009
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab highlighted on the premiere episode of the series "That's Impossible!", which aired on The History Channel. The episode was titled "Invisibility Cloaks." The series is narrated by Jonathan Frakes.

"Visions of the Future"

19 November 2007
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab highlighted on episode 3: "Visions of the Future: The Quantum Revolution," hosted by Michio Kaku. The program aired on BBC Four and can be found here.

"Star Trek Tech" on Modern Marvels

18 February 2006
Professor Smith and the metamaterials lab featured on Modern Marvels, on the episode "Star Trek Tech", which aired on The History Channel.

 

Popular Books and Text Books

Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen

Philip Ball
2014-04-08

From Amazon.com: "...Ball provides the first comprehensive history of our fascination with the unseen. This sweeping narrative moves from medieval spell books to the latest nanotechnology, from fairy tales to telecommunications, from camouflage to ghosts to the dawn of nuclear physics and the discovery of dark energy." Prof. Smith's work discussed in Chapter 10.

Harry Potter and the Art of Spying

Lynn M. Boughey and Peter Earnest
2014-09-15

From Amazon.com: "Spy novelist Lynn Boughey and thirty-six-year CIA veteran and executive director of the International Spy Museum Peter Earnest review the spy craft employed and celebrated in J. K. Rowling's bestselling books." The cloaking work of Prof. Smith and former student Nathan Landy are highlighted in Chapter 47.

Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, 2nd Ed.

Constantine A. Balanis
2012-01-24

One of the most ubiquitous and comprehensive textbooks in advanced electromagnetics for engineers. From Amazon: "A global best-seller for 20 years--covers the advanced knowledge engineers in electromagnetics need to know..." Chapter 2.7 introduces metamaterials. A discussion of negative index with a brief summary of Prof. Smith's work is presented in Chapter 5.7.

 

Popular Science Journals and Magazines

October-2007 | L'Homme Invisible: C'Est Possible!
David Larousserie, Sciences et Avenir, p60

June-2007 | Recent Advances in Cloaking
Optics and Photonics News 32 (June, 2007)

March-2007 | Unexpected Tricks of the Light
Katharine Sanderson, Nature Magazine 446, p364

12-March-2007 | TR10: Invisible Revolution
Philip Ball, Technology Review
Metamaterials chosen as one of the Top Ten Emerging Technologies

Jan-2007 | Invisibilite: Des metamateriax font de ce reve une realite
Science et Vie 1072, 84 (2007)

Jan-2007 | 1 An de Science: L'invisibilitie pour tous
La Recherche, p36 (January, 2007)

Jan-2007 | The Top 100 Science Stories of 2006
Discover Magazine (January, 2007)

22-Dec-2006 | Breakthrough of the Year: The Runners-Up
Science Magazine 314, 1850 (2006)

Dec-2006 | Technology Review 2006: The exotic and the everyday spur innovation
Laser Focus World (December, 2006)

Dec-2006 | Vanishing Act
BBC Focus 171, 15 (2006)

Nov-2006 | How to build an invisibility cloak
Discover Magazine, p55 (November, 2006)

Dec-2006 | Not seeing is believing
Materials Today 9, 9 (December, 2006)

Dec-2006 | The Scientific American 50
Scientific American 295, 49 (2006)

20-Oct-2006 | Invisibility cloak unveiled
Marie Theresa Bray, Cosmos

19-Oct-2006 | Invisibility cloak sees light of day
JR Minkel, Scientific American

19-Oct-2006 | First invsibility cloak tested successfully, scientists say
Sean Markey, National Geographic News

19-Oct-2006 | Vanishing Actor: Physicists unveil first invisibility cloak
Peter Weiss, Science News Online

19-Oct-2006 | Working invisibility cloak created at last
Justin Mullins, New Scientist Tech

Sep-2006 | The first invisibility shield
Justin Mullins, Popular Science

26-May-2006 | Cloaking breakthrough
Duncan Graham-Rowe, MIT Technology Review

 

Television interviews and coverage

23-Oct-2006 | See-Through Science: A Real Cloak of Invisibility
The Today Show, NBC
David Smith, David Schurig and Steve Cummer interviewed
A link to the video can be found from the Duke website.

21-Oct-2006 | Cloak of Invisibility
Fox News Live
David Schurig interviewed
See video on YouTube

19-Oct-2006 | Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann and Derrick Pitts discuss invisibility
Read transcript here

 

Radio and Internet Interviews

22-Sep-2015 | Meanwhile In The Future: Now You Can Buy An Invisibility Cloak
Gizmodo
Rose Eveleth, host and producer

6-Jul-2015 | Now You See It, Some Day You Won't: Scientists Get Closer To Invisibility
National Public Radio: Morning Edition
Barry Gordemer, host and producer

6-Dec-2006 | Invisibility Cloaks
BBC Radio Science: Frontiers
Peter Evans, host
Alexandra Feachem, producer

19-Oct-2006 | It's Elemental!
Are We Alone? The SETI Institute's Weekly Science Radio Program
Dr. Seth Shostak, host
Molly Bently, producer

20-Oct-2006 | Duke university scientists create invsibility cloak
Voice of America Radio
Report by Art Chimes

20-Oct-2006 | Scientists make progress on invisibility device
National Public Radio
Report by Christopher Joyce

 

Newspaper and Magazine Coverage

07-Oct-2015 | Can Science Make True Invisibility Possible
Robert Ferris, CNBC

10-Aug-2015 | Featured Engineer
Interview with David R. Smith, EEWeb

23-Mar-2015 | The Waves of the Future May Bend Around Metamaterials
John Markoff, New York Times

14-Nov-2015 | Duke Researchers Perfect The Original Invisibility Cloak
Alex Knapp, Forbes

12-Jun-2007 | Light Fantastic
Kenneth Chang, Science Times, New York Times (Cover Story)

23-Oct-2006 | 'Invisible' to microwaves
Marc Kaufman, Washington Post

20-Oct-2006 | Now you see him... scientists take step closer to making invisible cloak a reality
Ian Sample, The Guardian

19-Oct-2006 | Experts create invisibility cloak
Paul Rincon, BBC News

19-Oct-2006 | A real invisibility cloak? Wizard!
Lewis Smith, London Times Online

19-Oct-2006 | Researchers get 'cloak of invisibility' to work, sort of
Ker Than, Fox News/Live Science

20-Oct-2006 | Duke scientists demonstrate cloaking device
Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

20-Oct-2006 | Scientists take step toward invisibility
John Schwarz, New York Times

20-Oct-2006 | Disappear into thin air? Scientists take step toward invisibility
Peter N. Spotts, Christian Science Monitor

19-Oct-2006 | Scientists take 'cloak of invisibility' to the next step
Laurie Sullivan, TechWeb News

19-Oct-2006 | Cloaking device works, sort of, scientists say
Maggie Fox, Reuters

19-Oct-2006 | Duke takes wraps off cloaking device
R. Colin Johnson, EE Times

19-Oct-2006 | Scientists develop cloaking device
United Press International

20-Oct-2006 | Scientists create cloak of invisibility
Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press
(reprinted in over 500 newspapers and magazines)

20-Oct-2006 | 'Invisibility cloak' a step closer
Catherine Clabby, News and Observer

20-Oct-2006 | Now you see it... Invisibility cloak could become a reality
Dan Vergano, USA Today
(front page story. PDF version.)

19-Oct-2006 | Scientists create 'invisibility' cloak that bends microwaves
CBC News (Canada)

29-May-2006 | Scientists shed new light on invisibility
Gareth Cook, The Boston Globe

25-May-2006 | Here's how to make an invisibility cloak
Alan Boyle, MSNBC