Inventor and author Ray Kurzweil claims we are living in the knee of the curve: the sharp bend upward.

FORBES: How The Cheap Revolution Confuses Policymakers

The studio is based at Red Hill House on a sharp bend halfway down Red Hill, which is a narrow road.

BBC: Somerset yoga studio could be forced to close

But the most fearsome of these fences isn't "The Chair, " a 5-foot-3 high hedge fronted by an open ditch, the sharp bend of the "Canal Turn, " or even the dreaded "Becher's Brook, " with its steep 6-foot-5 drop.

WSJ: Why They Fear Aintree's First

The advantage of such a novel waveguide over more conventional ones is that it can bend light around sharp corners.

ECONOMIST: New-age crystals