The Visibility and Invisibility of Light

Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol47 Issue49 12–16 December 2022

About the event
Light! Not only does it underpin life on Earth, it also allows us to see, and for plants and animals to send a multitude of signals to friend and foe. 

But could we also use light to hide?  

Join Professor Devi Stuart-Fox and Professor Dragomir Neshev as they discuss the many ways light can be manipulated—from colour changing chameleons and the evolution of animal visual signals, to the difficulty of making an invisibility cloak outside the Harry Potter universe.  

They’ll also discuss how the varied ways colour is produced and detected in the animal world are inspiring human inventions, such as metal printing techniques that stem from butterfly wings. 

You’ll be surprised, you’ll be entertained, and you’ll definitely be enlightened.  

Speakers

Professor Devi Stuart-Fox
Devi Stuart-Fox is a professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Biosciences, and co-Chair of the University of Melbourne Hallmark Research Initiative in Bioinspiration. She studies the biology of light and colour—from optical properties at the nanometre scale to global patterns of colour diversity. She is a strong advocate for interdisciplinary research that draws on solutions from nature to meet the challenges of a sustainable future.

Professor Dragomir Neshev
Dragomir Neshev is a professor in physics at the Australian National University and the director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems. His activities span several branches of optics, including periodic photonic structures, singular optics, plasmonics and optical metasurfaces.  

This event is part of the Academy’s 2022 speaker series, Surprising Science: borrowed ideas leading to unimagined consequences.

View the recordings of the other events in the series.