John Pendry

Electromagnetism encompasses much of modern technology. Its influence rests on our ability to deploy materials that can control the component electric and magnetic fields. A new class of materials has created some extraordinary possibilities such as a negative refractive index, and lenses whose resolution is limited only by the precision with which we can manufacture them. Using the new materials cloaks have been designed and built that hide objects within them, but remain completely invisible to external observers. The new materials, named metamaterials, have properties determined as much by their internal physical structure as by their chemical composition and the radical new properties to which they give access promise to transform our ability to control much of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Ah, invisibility, that holy grail of physics and invention. In this stimulating talk, Prof John Pendry shares with us a history of the science of invisibility, and some exciting prototypical invisibility cloaks that have been made so far.

Professor Sir John Pendry talks about his highly cited paper, 'Controlling electromagnetic fields' which was published in Science in May 2006.

We filmed an interview with Prof. Sir John Pendry about his life in science to mark the occasion of his Newton Lecture. Prof. Sir John Pendry received the 2013 Isaac Newton medal for his "seminal contributions to surface science, disordered systems and photonics.'

What is light? Theoretical physicist Sir John Pendry gives us a bite-size introduction to light - and explains what it has to do with music.

Electromagnetism encompasses much of modern technology. Its influence rests on our ability to deploy materials that can control the component electric and magnetic fields. A new class of materials has created some extraordinary possibilities such as a negative refractive index, and lenses whose resolution is limited only by the precision with which we can manufacture them. Using the new materials cloaks have been designed and built that hide objects within them, but remain completely invisible to external observers. The new materials, named metamaterials, have properties determined as much by their internal physical structure as by their chemical composition and the radical new properties to which they give access promise to transform our ability to control much of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The pioneer of the metamaterials field talks about its potential across the electromagnetic spectrum and beyond.