Similarly, it would be seriously pushing it to rely on any scientific advances of the last (real-world) decade or so, unless there’s a reason Harry would be able to at least semi-plausibly pre-discover them himself. Not that I can think of any of those which would help anyhow, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Future tech—even things we think we could perhaps do—is probably right out. Harry could conceivably transfigure something (his epidermis, for example; has anybody mentioned that yet?) into a material that we know exists or could exist, and can describe in atomic or sub-atomic detail, yet can’t synthesize; an arbitrary isotope of an arbitrary element should probably be possible, for example. He can’t use transfiguration to produce something with negative mass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_mass), though… at least, I would assume not, even if the science he knows suggests that such a thing is theoretically possible.
Similarly, it would be seriously pushing it to rely on any scientific advances of the last (real-world) decade or so, unless there’s a reason Harry would be able to at least semi-plausibly pre-discover them himself. Not that I can think of any of those which would help anyhow, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Future tech—even things we think we could perhaps do—is probably right out. Harry could conceivably transfigure something (his epidermis, for example; has anybody mentioned that yet?) into a material that we know exists or could exist, and can describe in atomic or sub-atomic detail, yet can’t synthesize; an arbitrary isotope of an arbitrary element should probably be possible, for example. He can’t use transfiguration to produce something with negative mass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_mass), though… at least, I would assume not, even if the science he knows suggests that such a thing is theoretically possible.