Hi there! Have you ever watched a show called Star Trek? It’s all about the future and has some really cool inventions. One of my favorites is a cloaking device that can make spaceships invisible. Imagine that!
Someone named Brenin asked a great question: Is it possible to be invisible? People have been dreaming about invisibility for a long time. Think about Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak or Bilbo Baggins’ magic ring in The Hobbit. Even Lego Batman uses invisibility to sneak up on bad guys!
Being invisible would be so much fun! You could play tricks on your friends, win every game of hide and seek, and surprise people at parties. What would you do if you could be invisible? Take a moment to think about it!
Now, let’s talk about how we might make invisibility happen. While real invisibility is super hard to invent, there’s something called camouflage that helps us blend in with our surroundings.
For example, a wildlife photographer might wear white clothes to blend in with the snow. To animals not paying close attention, he seems invisible because he looks like the snow around him. That’s camouflage!
Scientists use camouflage too. In Antarctica, they wanted to study emperor penguins, but the penguins were scared of people. So, scientists used a robo-penguin to blend in. The penguins didn’t even notice the scientists were there!
Animals use camouflage as well. The orchid mantis looks just like the flowers it lives among. It can sneak up on insects without being seen. Cuttlefish, which are related to octopuses, can change their skin color and texture to blend in with their surroundings. They’re masters of disguise!
So, what about real invisibility, like in the movies? Scientists are working on it! We see things because light shines on them. If light could pass through us, we might be invisible. While that’s really tricky, scientists have found ways to bend light around objects using special materials.
One inventor created panels with tiny lenses that make objects seem to disappear. It’s not quite an invisibility cloak, but it’s a step closer!
While we can’t be truly invisible yet, we can use tricks like camouflage to blend in. Thanks to Brenin for the awesome question! After this, you can try a fun activity to learn how animals make themselves seem invisible. You can even hide messages for your friends and family to find!
We’ll be back with more questions soon. Until then, keep exploring and stay curious!
Camouflage Art: Gather some art supplies like colored paper, markers, and scissors. Choose an animal that uses camouflage, like a chameleon or a butterfly. Create a picture of the animal blending into its surroundings. Think about the colors and patterns that would help it hide. Share your artwork with your family and explain how your animal uses camouflage to stay hidden.
Hide and Seek with a Twist: Play a game of hide and seek, but this time, try to use camouflage! Find a spot where you can blend in with your surroundings. Maybe wear clothes that match the colors of the room or hide behind objects that are the same color as your clothes. After the game, talk about how camouflage helped you hide better.
Invisible Messages: Write a secret message using white crayon on white paper. Then, use watercolor paint to reveal the message. This is similar to how scientists use special materials to make things seem invisible. Think about how this trick is like bending light to hide objects. Share your invisible message with a friend and see if they can reveal it!
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. When I was growing up, one of my favorite TV shows was called Star Trek. It’s a show about the future, and I loved how it was full of inventions that don’t exist in real life, at least not yet. One of my favorite ideas is called a cloaking device. Watch what it does. A cloaking device can make things like an entire spaceship completely invisible—so cool!
Someone named Brenin has a question about invisibility. Let’s give Brenin a call now. (phone ringing) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Brenin. – I have a question for you: is it possible to be invisible? – That’s a great question! People have imagined the idea of invisibility for a long time, like the movie makers who gave Harry Potter his cloak of invisibility, or Bilbo Baggins’ magic ring in The Hobbit. Even Lego Batman uses the power of invisibility to sneak up on bad guys.
Being invisible would be so fun! Just think about it: you could play pranks on your friends, always win games of hide and seek, and totally surprise people at surprise birthday parties. Before I say anything more, I’m curious—what fun things would you do if you could be invisible? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? I wish I could hear all of your answers. You probably thought of lots of fun things you could do if you could make yourself invisible. Just imagine being able to have the type of invisibility where someone standing right in front of you can’t see you. That’d be pretty amazing! Like, imagine you could just press a button or put on a cloak and poof, disappear.
But what kind of technology could make that possible? Is there even such a thing? It seems like if there were, that would be a really hard thing to invent. One thing we can do that’s a lot easier is something more like this: we could use camouflage. This is more like a way of tricking someone or something into thinking that we’re invisible.
Like, look closely at how this wildlife photographer is dressed. You see how he’s wearing white clothes to match the snow? Now, up close, he’s definitely not invisible, but to animals who aren’t paying close attention, he seems invisible because he’s blending in with the snow around him. That’s what camouflage is—it’s looking like the background, the land, or the plants around you to blend in. It works really well. The animals he’s trying to take pictures of won’t even know he’s there.
Wearing different colored clothes to look like the things around you isn’t even the only way to seem invisible. You see these emperor penguins? They’re scared of people, like really scared. So when scientists in Antarctica wanted to study them, they could never get up close without sending them into a panic. Scientists would have loved to be invisible, but instead, they decided to trick the penguins into not seeing them. How? Meet the robo-penguin. By using this robot to blend in, scientists were able to sneak into this huge colony of penguins without ever being seen, and the pictures and videos they got were amazing. They even got videos of penguins laying eggs.
And it’s not only humans who use camouflage to become invisible and sneak up on something; animals use this trick too. Check out this orchid mantis. Wait, where is it? Ah, there it is. An orchid mantis looks just like all the orchid flowers growing where it lives. Unless you look really closely, you can’t even tell it’s there. When a butterfly or moth lands nearby, the orchid mantis can sneak up and snatch it without ever being seen.
Now, not all animals try to become invisible to sneak up on other animals; some try to become invisible because they just want to be left alone, like this cuttlefish, a relative of the octopus. Notice how its skin just changed? Cuttlefish are masters of invisibility tricks. Not only are they able to change the color of their skin to blend in where they’re swimming, they can actually change the patterns on their skin. And that’s not all—they can even change how bumpy their skin is, like if they’re swimming around bumpy rocks. Doesn’t it just look like these rocks?
Invisibility tricks like these work really well, but they’re still just tricks that fool animals who aren’t paying close attention. So, what about real invisibility? You know, like the kind of invisibility where you’re standing right in front of someone and they can’t see you. Is that kind of invisibility possible? Well, even though it is hard, scientists have made some interesting new discoveries, and it all has to do with light.
We’re able to see things like toys, tables, and books because light is shining on them, and when there’s no light, you can’t see them anymore. Part of what’s so hard about making something invisible is that actual invisibility would mean light would be able to pass right through you. That may never be possible. But what if we invent something that stops light from shining on objects? Something that makes light go around them? Then, those objects would become invisible, right?
Up until now, no one’s figured out how to do this with everyday light; they’ve only been able to bend a special light in a lab and only on a pretty small level. But at least one inventor has figured out a trick that’s kind of like getting light to bend around you. He invented panels of material made of tiny lenses that bring in light from the left and right side of an object. It’s almost like camouflage, but using light. Watch this object disappear behind the material. It’s pretty cool, right?
Now, you can’t really wear this material like an invisibility cloak yet; you would have to hold it up in front of you and stand really still. But it’s the closest thing we might have to real invisibility. So in summary, real invisibility, like you see in the movies, hasn’t been invented yet, but we can use tricks like camouflage or bending light with lenses to make ourselves blend in with our surroundings.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Brenin, for asking it! Now, after this video is done playing, my friends and I here at Mystery Science have created a special activity where you’ll observe different ways animals make themselves seem invisible. Then, you’ll use what you learned to help you hide messages and challenge friends and family to try and find them. You can do this activity in a group or all by yourself. I hope you’ll try it!
Now, we’ll be back with a new question in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are some older questions from the question jar. You can vote on which one you think we should send out next week. You can choose from: why do we get hiccups? Has a shooting star ever landed on someone? Or, what’s the biggest tree in the world? So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us—stay curious and see you soon!
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