Tumbler bomb and transparent mantle

In the movie "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson, the moment when the protagonist chases after the suspect on a building rooftop covered with water is widely considered a memorable scene. Water gets splashed all over whenever the protagonist takes a step, but her image cannot be seen. This is because of her transparent suit. The best of magic tools in the movie "Harry Potter" franchise is undisputedly "transparent mantle." Attempts to translate the imagination of being transparent (invisible) into a reality are widely being made in Korea and abroad. It is about the development of "meta material."

Meta material bends visible light so that the light can look as if it is passing through the object. Yonsei University’s mechanical engineering professor identified by his last name Kim, the victim of a tumbler bomb attack on Tuesday, drew attention by experimentally demonstrating a transparent mantle in collaboration with U.S. scientists in 2014. If the material developed by the scientists is coated on a submarine, it lets the submarine pass through sonar wave, which makes it difficult to detect. If the material is applied to pillars in a concert hall, it lets the sound seamlessly penetrate the pillar and thus allows one to hear stately sound even from a distance. The transparent airship that was shown in the movie "Avengers" can also be made possible this way.

The bombing incident at Yonsei University is shocking in many ways because it was a crime involving a bomb disguised as parcel, which is rare in Korea, and because a student of a prestigious graduate school of engineering targeted his own professor to attack. The student created the "nail bomb" by referring to the suicide bomb, which was used in the terror attack at the Manchester concert in the U.K. on May 22, and is frequently utilized by Islamic State. The student not only checked the professor’s schedule in advance, but left for home while keeping the 3D printer in the lab switched on to fabricate his alibi, and created the bomb by using his lab colleague’s tumbler to dodge an investigation.

Not a few netizens are sympathetic toward the student, saying that this could have happened before. Social network services and online bulletin boards have a flurry of comments reading “Considering professors’ bad behaviors, they deserve bombing,” and “I often felt like I wanted to kill my professor,” in disclosing professors’ selfish, arrogant and self-serving behaviors. Some say that there are people who have mentally suffered due to Prof. Kim’s outstanding talent and correspondingly arrogant character. However, the fact that comments supportive of the bombing terror attack jeopardizing one’s life are circulating in our society is a serious threat to the community.