The process through which a person or a thing can be rendered unseen. Science fiction has long offered the idea that invisibility is viable. One of the most famous works of British science fiction writer H. G. Wells is The Invisible Man (1897). The book tells of the adventures of a misanthropic scientist who discovers the secret of making himself invisible. Since that time, the idea of invisibility has been a staple theme of science fiction.
A more recent use of invisibility occurs on the television show Star Trek. Some starships on the program use a “cloaking device” that renders them invisible to sensors including light-sensitive devices. Lawrence Krauss, in his book The Physics of Star Trek, suggests that the starships may use a device that is powered by antimatter and is related to the “warp drive” to bend light around themselves. Another example of reputed “invisibility” is the Philadelphia experiment, in which the U.S. government reputedly rendered the battleship USS Eldridge invisible.