James' World 2

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Whether it’s James Bond flicking a switch to turn his Aston Martin invisible in the middle of a car chase, Harry Potter ducking and diving out of harm’s way by donning a magical invisibility cloak, the Predator, Klingon Birds-of-Prey, or the endless reams of literature based on characters being able to go about their lives undetected, the dream of tech that grants us invisibility has long been an obsession.

But it has, for now, remained in the realm of science fiction. As recently as 2016, researchers had concluded that the fundamental laws of physics meant a true invisibility cloak wasn’t possible. Past methods of creating invisibility relied on blocking objects at specific electromagnetic wavelengths—something that fell apart when you needed to work on multiple wavelengths at once. 

That may no longer be the case. A 2019 patent, filed by a Canadian company called Hyperstealth Technology, suggested that it’s possible to bend light around an object using a “quantum stealth” cloak to make it disappear—albeit not perfectly. And militaries around the world continue to try to make the technology work. In 2020, the Israeli Ministry of Defense and tech company Polaris Solutions announced a 500-gram thermal visual concealment sheet that uses polymers to conceal anyone or anything underneath it.

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Photograph: Vollebak

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There are all kinds of pollutants in the air around us. Outdoors, these can be washed away through the falling rain, and the oxidation that happens after ultraviolet light from the Sun interacts with ozone and water vapor.

So, what happens indoors?

As a new study shows, there’s also some oxidation going on indoors too: the chemical cleaning that occurs via these hydroxyl (OH) radicals – short-lived reactive species whose job is to oxidize other molecules – happens through a combination of ozone leaking in from the outside, and from the oxidation fields that we create around ourselves.

In some scenarios, levels of OH radicals indoors are comparable to daytime outdoor levels, scientists have found. In other words, we’re walking, breathing, chemical reaction machines, which has implications for indoor air quality and human health.

“The discovery that we humans are not only a source of reactive chemicals, but we are also able to transform these chemicals ourselves was very surprising to us,” says atmospheric chemist Nora Zannoni from the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate in Italy.

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Computer modeling of OH reactivity (L) and concentration (R). (Zannoni et al., Science, 2022)

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Berrak Sarikaya always knew she wanted to be a lawyer. In high school, she threw herself into mock trial and debate. The oldest child of Turkish immigrant parents, Sarikaya understood the gravity of getting into a good college and the necessity of scholarships to fund that schooling. “One of the biggest reasons that we came to the US was for me and my brother to get a good education and have better opportunities,” Sarikaya, 37, says. “So there was definitely that pressure of if I don’t go to college, then all of it will have been a waste.”

When it came time for higher education, Sarikaya’s hard work paid off. She enrolled in her dream school, George Washington University, and lived at home. Her freshman year was enjoyable, she says, but grueling, with full days of classes, studying, homework, and working at a grocery store and a bank. By her sophomore year, however, the sheen had worn off. Her classes weren’t challenging, and she wasn’t feeling fulfilled by the coursework. What’s more, tuition jumped, and her parents took out loans to supplement her scholarship.

By this point, Sarikaya was working at law offices and she felt this experience provided her with more real-world training than sitting in a classroom. Though college was the thing her family and society “expected” of her, an achievement many young Americans also feel pressured to attain, Sarikaya dropped out of college.

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Denis Novikov/Getty Images

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is widely respected for a number of qualities. Patiently building a company with a juggernaut of a flywheel. Turning an internal initiative into Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary that rakes in over $17.4 billion in revenue. Knowing how to hire the right people. Making smart expansion decisions.

In short, for being unusually smart.

But, as Bezos learned as a 10-year-old during a road trip with his grandparents, intelligence alone won’t make you successful — or help you live a life you’ll look back on with few regrets.

According to Bezos, cleverness is a gift. “You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful,” Bezos said to Princeton graduates in 2010, “and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.”

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Jeff Bezos. Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Staff/Getty Images

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Over time, these phrases become second-nature, and you begin to notice why they work. 

It’s sort of like learning phrases in a foreign language phonetically, only to realize after using them for a while that you better understand what they actually mean and how to spell them.

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Illustration: Getty Images

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