And so will the fortunes of those who get in early and build the right light-bending products.

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The content zooms and clatters over an array of archaic and futuristic gear, from aging copper phone lines to light-bending optical switches.

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But researchers quickly found out that the mathematics behind bending these light waves, called transformation optics, could also be applied to sound waves.

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The bending creates a lensing effect in the same way that light is bent through glass or plastic in a microscope or your eyeglasses.

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